10.1 General

The first decision to make in any emergency is whether blood for transfusion is required. This will depend upon factors such as:

· the type of patient involved (e.g. epidemics or natural disasters such as floods are not likely to result in conditions requiring urgent blood transfusions);

· the availability and accessibility of blood from existing blood transfusion services;

· the availability of plasma substitutes, or volume expanders, such as crystalloid or colloid solutions.

These factors should be considered during preliminary assessment of the emergency situation.