a crucial first step, after procuring a suitable building, purchasing all the myriad items of equipment required, and selecting and training qualified medical, technical and administrative staff, was conducting widespread publicity and blood donor recruitment campaigns, to alter public attitudes towards voluntary donation, and draw public attention to the dangers of current transfusion practice – a veritably transformative social revolution. within a few years, the inbts became self-sufficient in tehran, as voluntary donors from every walk of life, provided for the needs of hospitals in the capital. in addition, complementary services, such as blood components, clinical immunology, histocompatibility testing to support the first organ transplant programmes, special and antenatal serology, frozen red cells, and plasma fractionation were added to the spectrum of activities.