Establishing external quality assessment programmes for screening of donated blood for transfusion-transmissible infections: implementation guide

Overview

Establishing external quality assessment programmes for screening of donated blood for transfusion-transmissible infections: implementation guide aims to support WHO Member States in establishing and operating EQA programmes for screening donated blood for TTI. The guide has been designed for use by national health authorities and EQA organizing institutions in the development of EQA programmes that can be implemented at national, state, provincial and district levels. It will also give participating laboratories an insight into the organization of EQA programmes for TTI screening and an understanding of the benefits of participation.

This guide is intended to be a companion to the WHO publication External quality assessment of transfusion laboratory practice: guidelines on establishing an EQA scheme in blood group serology (WHO/EHT/04.09). Hence, much of the present guide mirrors the information included in the earlier publication. This is because general principles of external quality assessment are the same irrespective of discipline.