Disaster-proofing our blood supply

We need to beat the weather to supply safe blood all around Australia, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You probably know that the winter cold and flu season decreases the number of healthy blood donors in Australia (by about 1,000 donors per week), but changes in the weather can also affect the blood supply in other ways.

Flooding rains

Floods in Australia have recently been more widespread and frequent, so our blood supply and distribution network includes back up plans. The design and locations of our four processing centres in Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane help to minimise the threat of bad weather.

Each processing centre can operate for four days without external water, gas, electricity or sewerage!

Managing floods is included in our building designs, and has already been tested at the Sydney facility. A month after the building’s commissioning, the area was swamped with torrential rain, causing flash flooding. Business was able to continue as usual because the facility is four metres above ground level and includes a levee to protect the basement car park.

A resilient system

Ex-tropical cyclone Alfred in Southeast Queensland led to over 3,500 appointment cancellations and an unprecedented drop in national blood supplies, amidst hospitals stockpiling in preparation and donor centres being forced to close. However, the rest of the country responded, with thousands of donors answering our urgent call for blood. Lifeblood’s disaster response team have extensive and flexible approaches to blood transport available for just this kind of scenario, and they worked closely with the Defence Force and emergency services to make sure life-saving donations from across Australia reached the people who needed them most despite flooded roads, power outages and damaging winds.

Changing disease patterns

Our researchers are keeping a watchful eye on diseases that could threaten our blood supply. Dr Elvina Viennet and her group in Research and Development are closely monitoring how climate and environmental changes influence the potential risks of blood-borne diseases, informing strategies that ensure the blood supply remains safe and resilient into the future.

Climate change may impact the spread of infectious diseases, especially those carried by mosquitoes. Predictions of increased rainfall and warmer temperatures in regions like Australia and our Pacific neighbours could allow mosquito-borne viruses – such as dengue, West Nile virus, Japanese encephalitis virus and the parasite responsible for malaria – to spread into new areas. If a person is unknowingly infected with one of these pathogens and donates blood, there’s a risk that it could be passed on to the recipient. Lifeblood’s extensive screening of all donated blood protects against that risk, but Dr Viennet explains that these diseases can still impact the number of donations made. “We could see more people temporarily unable to donate blood due to outbreaks of these mosquito-borne diseases in new areas, even if they’re not infected themselves. This is particularly a concern after flood events due to water lying around.”

 Just like flooding, disease outbreaks are factored into our donor centre placement decisions. For example, Townsville Donor Centre is fully focused on plasma donations, meaning that even when people are prevented from donating blood by an outbreak, they can continue to give life through plasma. And there’s more to come in future:

“We’re exploring new technologies for processing blood, which could inactivate more blood-borne viruses, and are developing additional screening methods to test donations,” says Dr Viennet.

Our Research and Development team is keeping an eye on the horizon to ensure Australia’s blood supply remains one of the safest in the world – rain, hail or shine.