- Blood and blood plasma donations are of great importance in trauma medicine and for people who have to undergo surgery.
- Unlike blood donations, 80 percent of the world’s blood plasma donations are estimated to come from the United States.
- With its vacuum-insulated boxes and containers, va-Q-tec supports the transport of the individual proteins of the blood plasma on an international level.
The discoverer of blood groups, Karl Landsteiner, was born on June 14, 1868. In his honor, World Blood Donor Day has therefore been celebrated on this day since 2014. The day is intended to remind people of the importance of blood donation and to emphasize its importance: according to the BZgA, around 15,000 blood donations are needed every day in Germany alone. According to the German Red Cross, 80 percent of all Germans rely on a blood donation once in their lifetime. These figures show: Blood and blood plasma donations are of enormous importance.
Nevertheless, only about 2.2 million people donate blood and even only 217,000 people donate blood plasma in Germany each year (as of 2018). For this reason, particularly from the USA, where the willingness to donate is significantly higher, a lot of blood plasma is imported to Europe: 40% of the demand is purchased from there.
Blood plasma has many uses and forms the basis for medications, for example in cancer therapy or for hereditary autoimmune diseases. The more than 120 proteins contained in blood plasma are used for this purpose. These are vital for blood clotting and defense against infections, among other things.
With its passive high-performance boxes and containers, va-Q-tec already supports the transport of the temperature-sensitive proteins of blood plasma on an international scale, especially the transport out of the USA. However, va-Q-tec’s safe and reliable products can also be used in the transport of plasma donations from donation centers. Thanks to innovative technology and the use of so-called vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) and phase change materials (PCMs), va-Q-tec’s boxes and containers can maintain stable temperatures between -70°C to +25°C for several days. This makes them ideal for transporting temperature-sensitive goods, such as blood plasma. There are strict requirements for its transport: the protein building blocks must be transported at a temperature of -20°C or lower, otherwise they can no longer be used. With its international network of TempChain Service Centers, where the boxes and containers are preconditioned to those low temperatures, va-Q-tec can safely handle this transport.
Suitable boxes for transporting the blood plasma and its proteins can be found here.