Welcome to the Mexican National Blood Transfusion Center's Website
The National Blood Transfusion Center (or CNTS by its Spanish acronym) is part
of the National Institutes of Health in Mexico. CNTS is the government agency responsible for the
establishment of national policies and regulations on transfusional medicine. Since its creation in
1980, the National Blood Transfusion Center has kept these responsibilities on regulation and
during 2003 handed over the sanitary activities to the Federal Commission for the Protection
Against Sanitary Risks in Mexico (US, FDA equivalent).
The National Blood Transfusion Center has the largest Cord blood bank in
Mexico, called CordMX. The Cord Blood Bank was created in 2003 and it had become an Associate
Member of NetCord in January 2006. CordMX is an ISO certified blood bank and its Human Leukocyte
Antigen (HLA) laboratory was certified by the European Federation for Inmunogenetics in February
2008. Currently it is the most efficient umbilical cord blood bank in Mexico. In 2007 CordMX was
ranked first by the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA), by the percentage of cord blood units
provided for transplantation in relation to the number of cord blood units present. Through the
cord blood bank, CNTS makes searches in their inventories and in the NetCord network and has
released units mainly to institutions in Mexico and Latin America.
One of the most active programs of CNTS is related to the promotion of
voluntary blood donation in Mexico. Voluntary blood donation is considered by the World Health
Organization principle as the cornerstone of a safe and adequate supply of blood and blood
products. Currently, voluntary blood donations in Mexico do not exceed 4% of the total annual blood
collection, but there are success establishments with a voluntary blood donation over a 30%.
Other programs of the National Blood Transfusion Center are related with
training on transfusion medicine, external quality control programs on serology and
inmuno-hematology, national data gathering, collection and analysis, and some others related with
the processing of the blood and blood components.
Phone for calling: [52] 55 511946 to 28 + ext.
English spoken contacts:
Julieta Rojo-Medina, Ph.D. M.D. General Director, ext. 1105
Víctor Torras-Giner, M.D. Hem. Research and Technical Director, ext.
1306
Efren Horacio Figueroa Montaño MASS (CordMX), ext. 1308
José Antonio Arroyo, Qfi. Technical Subdirector ext. 13018
Teresa Martínez Campos, Webpage responsible, ext. 1408
E-mail: cnts@salud.gob.mx