Health Policy

Publications on Health Policy subjects
 

The Health Policy Division produces a wide range of publications in every field of its activities. Here you find the complete list of available books for each subject.

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Blood

 
Guide to the preparation, use and quality assurance of blood components - 13th edition (2007)

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Guide to the preparation, use and quality assurance of blood components - 12th edition (2006)

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Guide to the preparation, use and quality assurance of blood components - 11th edition (2005)

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  Guide to the preparation, use and quality assurance of blood components - 10th edition (2004)

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Guide to the preparation, use and quality assurance of blood components - 9th edition (2003)

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The use of human red blood cells for preparation of oxygen carrying substances - Recommendation No. R (98) 10 and explanatory memorandum (1999)

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Pathogen inactivation of labile blood products (2001)

The selection of donors and screening of donated blood and plasma have greatly diminished the risk of blood products transmitting viral or other infectious agents. The safety of stable plasma-derived products has been further improved by the inclusion of virus inactivation steps into the manufacturing, by which transfusion-relevant enveloped viruses as well as some non-enveloped viruses are reliably eliminated. But because of their cytotoxicity, these methods cannot be applied to cellular blood products. The safety of cellular blood products has been increased by the introduction of prestorage leukocyte depletion and nucleic acid amplification tests for certain viruses. However, since these methods have their limits, a small but significant infectious risk cannot be excluded today. Moreover, newly emerging infectious agents have been described, and uncertainties about their pathogenicity and their mode of transmission fostering anxieties as to the safety of labile blood products.

Methods aimed at the inactivation of pathogens in labile blood products have been developed in recent years. Investigations into some technologies are at an advanced preclinical or already in clinical stages. Evidently, the use of such procedures raises a number of issues, including efficacy, the damage inflicted to labile blood products, the toxicity for patients, and the cost-benefit ratio. In the foreseeable future, national blood transfusion services and health authorities will be faced with this development and will have to consider the introduction of these methods. The report summarises the current information available on these pathogen inactivation procedures.

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The collection and use of human blood and plasma in Europe - Report prepared by Prof. Dr. W. G. Van Aken (1998)

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  The collection and use of human blood and plasma in the non-European Union Council of Europe member states in 1995 (1998)

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Blood transfusion: half a century of contribution by the Council of Europe (1998)

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  Blood transfusion in Europe: a white paper. Safe and sufficient blood in Europe (1998)

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Activities of blood bank in the Council of Europe member states related to bone marrow transplantations (1997)

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  Additional Protocol to the European Agreement on the Exchanges of Blood-Grouping Reagents (ETS 111) (1998)

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European Agreement on the Exchange of Blood-Grouping Reagents (ETS 39) (1998)

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Transplantation

 
Guide to safety and quality assurance for organs, tissues and cells �2nd Edition (2004)

This Guide includes standards for procurements, preservation, processing and distribution of organs, tissues and cells. It is the first international text on this topic adopted by Health Authorities.

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  Guide to safety and quality assurance for organs, tissues and cells � 1st Edition (2002)
This Guide includes standards for procurements, preservation, processing and distribution of organs, tissues and cells. It is the first international text on this topic adopted by Health Authorities.

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Additional Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine concerning Transplantation of Organs and Tissues of Human Origin - Strasbourg, 24.I.2002 (ETS N� 186) (2002)

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