Each year, unsafe transfusion and injection practices cause an estimated 8 million to 16 million hepatitis B infections, 2 million to 4 million hepatitis C virus infections and 80,000 to 160,000 HIV infections. Eighty percent of the world's population has access to only 20% of the world's safe blood supply. Experts say women of childbearing age are among the most vulnerable people in the developing world, and this is especially true in societies where women bear children young and often.

It is clear that quality checking is also vital to a safe blood supply. A reliable system needs to be in place to ensure proper screening and proper matching of blood. The error of giving the wrong blood can be fatal to a patient.

Centralized blood collection systems coordinated nationally have several advantages over small blood banks — better trained personnel, better equipment, for instance — and those benefits contribute substantially to blood safety.

These centers can also provide better attention to donors, which is important for increasing voluntary, unpaid donations, and are better equipped to break blood down into its component parts. In many cases, full blood transfusions are not needed as the patient may only require one component of the blood for his or her condition. Overuse or misuse of whole-blood transfusions is not only less cost-effective; it also increases the risk of transmitting infections.