10 Shocking Facts About The Blood Donation Industry In India

A friend calls you up and tells you about a blood donation camp that is being held nearby.

You, being a socially conscious person, will eat well and go and donate blood religiously. And at the end of it, when you eat the parle G biscuits they give you, you feel satisfied that you did a good deed today.

Your blood will be used to save someone’s life after all.

Or will it?

1. They extract plasma out of donated blood and sell it to pharma companies for huge profits

There is no real mechanism in place that can monitor what happens to blood after it is donated. Many corrupt hospital officials extract plasma from the blood and sell it to Pharmaceutical companies.

And since they have not bought the blood, they make pure profit running into crores of rupees.

The same goes for pharma companies – they do not have to buy blood, which makes plasma more expensive.

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2. Add to this the fact that there is a huge shortage of blood in spite of blood donation drives

Even though you must have seen a lot of your friends donating blood, there is still an acute shortage of blood in blood banks and hospitals.

A major reason for this is still that people have a lot of misunderstanding associated with blood donation. Black market transactions and poor storage facilities add up for the rest.

The blood deficit is a whopping 35%.

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3. Your blood will probably be sold illegally to people who can pay more for it

Although blood is usually given on a priority basis depending on how critical the medical condition is, if a person can pay more, that person gets the blood.

It is as good as an auction.

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4. Donors are not supposed to get paid but on the black market you can pay 3000 rupees per donor to get blood

 

You don’t even have to go to a blood bank. There are these agents that arrange everything – for just 3000 rupees.

Selling blood is illegal and so is getting money for donating.

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5. There is still a lot of taboo attached to transferring blood from low caste people

People go to the extent of not accepting blood, asking if the blood comes from a low caste man. People do not want to donate blood either. This makes donation more difficult and when emergency for a genuine case arises, there is no blood available.

 

6. There are illegal blood farms where poor people are forced to give blood for money

They are “donors” from poor villages who are lured into these blood farms with the promise of good money.

But after some time, when they are weak, they are trapped, beaten and used as blood donors forcibly.

Some donors give blood almost 12 times a month, and after all this, they are too weak to fight anymore.

It is like a dairy farm, but for blood.

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7. The illegal blood industry is a 300 crores rupees industry and growing

Imagine if that much blood actually gets to the people.

How many lives would be saved?

How much money would be saved?

 

8. Some blood transfusions happen directly – patient to patient, without any collecting or testing

Even in the illegal market, blood is still taken in proper packaging and used with the proper procedures.

But in rural areas, where patients cannot afford the high cost, they take the blood directly from a blood donor – without any testing or collection procedures.

This makes them highly susceptible to diseases.

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9. If you can digest this, even blood is adulterated. With water and saline solution

Forget milk, blood smugglers use waste water to dilute blood and increase its quantity. If they have the money, they will use saline water, but most of the times it is plain, unfiltered water.

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10. Umbilical cord blood scam is the new IN thing today with stem cell treatments still not proven

Most of the new mothers go ahead and keep the umbilical cord blood for storing. The storage charges are very high, and doctors are recommending against it, calling it a scam.

This is because stem cell treatments for diseases like blood cancer and metabolic disorders have not been proven yet. The results are still speculative, and paying around 1 Lakh per year for its storage is plain stupid according to doctors.

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We need a central body that can monitor blood donation and keep the illegal activities away from such a critical medical procedure.

Otherwise, when you are in critical need, the blood might not be available, or worse, it might be adulterated with water.