Erythroblastosis fetalis — the discovery and partial elimination of rhesus incompatibility — the origins of exchange transfusion in Australia

Fifty years of RhD immunoglobulin (anti‐D) therapy in Australia: celebrating a public health success story

“…Extrapolating birth rate statistics and data from New South Wales 4 and Victoria 5 nationally, about 250 stillbirth and neonatal deaths from HDFN would have occurred annually in 1967, with many more babies affected by morbidity. At the time, treatment options were limited to exchange transfusion of RhD‐negative blood in affected neonates (Box 1), which had begun in Australia in 1946, and to intrauterine exchange transfusions, which commenced in 1967 6 . Soon after the Congress, state‐based Red Cross Blood Transfusion Services, first in NSW and then in Western Australia under directors Dr Gordon Archer and Dr Martin Davey respectively (Box 2), began identifying individuals who would be suitable as donors of RhD Ig.…”

“…At the time, treatment options were limited to exchange transfusion of RhD-negative blood in affected neonates (Box 1), which had begun in Australia in 1946, and to intrauterine exchange transfusions, which commenced in 1967. 6 Soon after the Congress, state-based Red Cross Blood Transfusion Services, first in NSW and then in Western Australia under directors Dr Gordon Archer and Dr Martin Davey respectively (Box 2), began identifying individuals who would be suitable as donors of RhD Ig. Initially, these included RhD-negative women who had been immunised and formed anti-D to their RhD-positive babies, and men who had formed anti-D following RhD-positive transfusion.…”