Blood Community: Emergency Preparedness Legislation Must Include Blood Supply

AABB, America’s Blood Centers (ABC) and the American Red Cross (ARC) urged senior members of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee to incorporate the safety of the blood supply into legislation to reauthorize the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA).   

Signed into law in 2006, PAHPA amended the Public Health Service Act to establish the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It also provided new authorities for a number of programs, including the advanced development and acquisitions of medical countermeasures (MCMs), and called for the establishment of a quadrennial National Health Security Strategy (NHSS). 

In joint comments issued today, the organizations asked policymakers to ensure that ASPR considers the availability of a safe, adequate blood supply as an essential part of its programs, policies, and procedures. AABB, ABC and ARC also encouraged Congress to specify that the NHSS consider strategies to ensure the safety and resilience of the blood supply. 

In addition, the organizations included recommendations to protect the safety and availability of blood related to the Strategic National Stockpile, Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise, the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) Cooperative Agreements and the Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) Cooperative Agreements. These recommendations also included asking Congress to provide HHS with the explicit authority to fund activities that support access to pre-hospital blood transfusions. 

Finally, the blood community provided solutions for gaps in the public health ecosystem that are unaddressed in the current PAHPA framework. AABB, ABC and ARC asked Congress to adopt and implement the recommendations that were included in the HHS Report to Congress: Adequacy of the National Blood Supply and encouraged policymakers to include the laboratory workforce in all health care workforce solutions.  

Additional information on AABB’s activities to protect the availability are available on AABB’s Blood Sustainability web page. Information related to strengthening the workforce can be found on AABB’s Workforce Initiatives web page.