How we use blood and blood products
In Australia:
- 1 in 3 people will need blood or blood products in their lifetime
- we need more than 29,000 donations every week to meet demand.
A single blood donation can save up to 3 lives.
Where blood and blood products come from
Australia is self-sufficient in fresh blood products.
Each year, 1 in 30 people give blood (3% of Australians).
We always need more blood donors, to make sure we continue to have enough for those who need it. Find out who can donate blood from the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood.
The National Blood Authority (NBA) manages and coordinates the supply of blood and blood products and services on behalf of all Australian governments.
We import some plasma-derived products and demonstrated effective blood product alternative (these are non-blood, non-plasma medicines) to make sure we can meet demand because:
- not enough can be manufactured in Australia
- the product is not manufactured in Australia.
We place strict conditions on imported supply to make sure the products are safe.
Read more about imported products.
Read more about what we’re doing about blood and blood products in Australia.