Village women give blood to earn a living
- Source: Global Times
- [13:29 November 13 2009]
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People donate for different reasons.
Yunxian County with a population of 600,000 is one of the poorest agricultural counties in the country. In the past, village men earned their livelihood by digging sand and women raised pigs and cows at home.
Since 1998, when the automatic sand digger was introduced, less manpower is required and farming does not yield much income. Many families regard "blood money" as the only way to supplement their meager incomes.
Two years ago, Zhou Wenfen, 53, sold her blood to pay medical bills for her three-year-old grandson who developed anemia that summer. Since 2007. The medical bills add up to 100,000 yuan ($14,650).
Gong Chuanhai, 47, is among the first to become a regular blood seller. He later became the Xuetou (blood giver recruiter).
People who donate blood more than three times are regarded as regular donors. Gong can earn an additional 20-yuan ($2.9) commission from the blood bank for every regular donor he recruits.
"It's all about money. If we don’t give blood, we get nothing," Gong said.
Although the cash brings instant prosperity to people living in mud-brick homes, paying for school fees and medical bills, it may also carry deadly risks for the blood givers.
In Wenlou and Shuangmiao villages in Henan Province, villagers contracted AIDS after selling blood to illegal blood stations that re-used needles and pooled blood in huge tubs.
"If any donor carries the AIDS virus and the blood station uses the same container to hold and pump back the contaminated blood protein to donors, the chances of other donors getting infected will be 100 percent," Zhou Lihua, an expert at the AIDS research center of Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine told the Global Times.
However, Li Guangcheng, head of the blood station in Yunxian county, told the Global Times that his clinic has a 13-year track record of safe blood collections and no donors so far have been infected.
"Each potential donor is tested before they are allowed to give blood and all our collecting procedures and equipment are up to the national standard," he said.
The spokesman for the county government, surnamed Fang, told the Global Times that a significant number of people donate their blood for no financial reward, but more attention needs to be paid to the livelihood of underprivileged villagers who give blood for quick cash.
Since 2007, China has suffered a serious shortage of blood plasma reserves.
In many cities, the blood reserve is depleted. In Beijing, there are only 6,559 units (one unit equals 200 cc) of blood stored in the blood bank, 41 percent of the normal level, the Xinhua New Agency reported.
This March, in an effort to promote safe blood donations, Health Minister Chen Zhu donated 200 cc of blood plasma at Beijing’s Red Cross Blood Center.
"Legal practice of blood collection and donation should be encouraged," he said.
