The evolution of blood donation

The circulation of blood was discovered in 1628 by British physician William Harvey. The first recorded successful blood transfusion occured in 1665 when physician Richard Lower managed to keep dogs alive after transfusing blood from other dogs. Animal-to-human blood transfusions subsequently took place, but the practice became prohibited by law because of reactions due to incompatibility.

Human transfusion medicine first got going in 1818 when James Blundell, a British obstetrician, performed the first successful transfusion of human blood to a patient. The year 1900 was another key date, when Karl Landsteiner discovered the first three human blood groups (A, B and O).

The 20th century was an exciting period in transfusion medicine, especially after the banking of blood becomes possible in the 1930s. Progress in blood transfusion was made during World War II, and then put to good use in peacetime. Some countries had established panels of voluntary blood donors early in the century while others moved gradually towards voluntary donation as it became clear that the practice of paid donation caused problems in blood safety.

In the latter half of the century, blood component therapy led to a revolution in blood banking where individual blood components could be tailor-made to suit the requirements of patients. By the 1970s, blood transfusion had become the basis of much of modern medicine and voluntary blood donors now play an important role as co-health workers with medical professionals around the world.