In Austria, almost all banked blood is supplied by Red Cross blood centres. Every year, half a million of units of blood are required to meet the country's hospitals' needs.

During the summer months of July and August it is particularily difficult to collect the necessary amounts of blood for two reasons: many of the reliable donors are on holidays, and more traffic on the roads means more accidents. Surgery to repair a ruptured liver after a motorcycle accident, for instance, requires up to sixty units of blood.

Red Cross donors are offered free blood tests for specific diseases, blood type, and the Rhesus factor - information that is valuable to the donors! Every single unit of blood undergoes extensive examination and testing for the AIDS virus, heaptitis (types B and C), and Syphilis infections. The collection, storage, and processing procedures are strictly regulated by international safety standards. By adhering to these standards, Austria's blood donation and collection program is one of the safest of the world.