Every year transfusions of whole blood save the lives of countless people who have experienced blood loss through trauma, or who have serious blood disorders. However, blood contains many specific components, including immune system cells, clotting factors, and albumin, that can all be extracted from plasma using modern technologies, to treat many different diseases that would otherwise be fatal. Clotting factors are used to treat serious bleeding disorders, including haemophilia, while albumin is a protein that can be used to help treat people with burns, sepsis, liver disease or kidney disease. Human antibodies, or immunoglobulins, isolated from donated blood can be used to support people with compromised immune systems, as well as to help treat people with infectious diseases such as COVID-19.
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