Iran's health minister, Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, has emphasized that blood from Iranian donors, and products derived from this blood, are among the safest in the world, complying with the highest international standards.

Iran Press/ Iran: In an exclusive interview with Iran Press on Tuesday at the sidelines of the “4th Iran International Congress of Transfusion Medicine & XIV Annual Congress of Asian Association of Transfusion Medicine (AATM), the minister of health and medical education Dr. Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi, praised Iranian blood donors and urged them to continue with their donations. 

Asked about blood products and derivatives produced in Iran, Ghazizadeh Hashemi said: "There are some people who suffer from blood-related illnesses from the time of their birth, for example they may not have the blood factors or they might face blood coagulation problems, or they may suffer from  cellular diseases and dysfunction, and they may well need  medicines which are derived from blood, or blood products."

Ghazizadeh Hashemi added: "We must produce blood-related medicines from blood donated by Iranian  donors, and we must not  forget that the first person who contracted HIV in Iran, was a child who was given a blood transfusion with HIV contaminated blood from a donor (foreign) country. So to be on the safe side, the best thing we can do is to produce and dispense these people's medicine from blood donated by Iranian donors, which is the safest blood and complies with the highest international health and hygiene standards.

From a safety perspective, we should only use blood from Iranian donors , it is among the safest in the world. 

The 2 days event,the “4th Iran International Congress of Transfusion Medicine & XIV Annual Congress of Asian Association of Transfusion Medicine (AATM) has kicked of in Tehran.