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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 March 1999 Issue No. 420 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 March 1999 Issue No. 420
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Special Features Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Blood money banned
By Nadia Abou El-MagdHealth Minister Dr Ismail Sallam issued an order last week banning the sale of blood donations to blood banks. The move was made after a woman who had been given an allegedly contaminated blood transfusion was diagnosed as HIV positive.
The minister's decree, No 25 of 1999, also required blood banks, both private and public, to register all data related to the donor, including the date of the last blood donation. Violations will lead to the closure of blood banks and the revocation of licences.
The order came as a result of questions submitted by three MPs in the People's Assembly and a press campaign after an elderly woman, who undergoes regular renal dialysis, was diagnosed as HIV positive. The woman had reportedly received a blood donation from a homosexual who made a living from selling his contaminated blood.
The deputies complained that violations and negligence at certain blood banks caused the woman and others to contract HIV. They demanded that the Health Ministry ban the activities of professional blood sellers and that government banks provide private ones with blood.
Sallam responded that his ministry, in addition to running 244 blood banks, was launching a campaign to invite blood donations. He added that the ministry, which keeps blood banks under close supervision, has ordered the closure of some banks and referred them to the Prosecutor-General after contaminated blood units were discovered. Three blood banks have been closed already and an investigation is under way.
Dr Magdi El-Ekiabi, director of the blood bank at the El-Shabrawishi hospital, said that he was not concerned about the drop in profit as much as a possible shortage in the blood supply. "There is no loss at all because the profit margin was trivial," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. "However, my main concern is about the already existing shortage. Egypt needs between 1 and 1.5 million blood units [annually]. But banks only manage to collect half a million units."
El-Ekiabi said that if blood banks carry out all the analysis and tests necessary to ensure a safe blood transfusion, they cannot make more than a 15 per cent profit. Private banks used to pay donors LE20 per unit and sell the blood on at LE120 or more. El-Ekiabi pointed out that private banks are not allowed to take part in campaigns to encourage blood donations.
Following the ministerial order, private blood banks will have to rely on supplies from public banks and from donations by patients' families.
Dr Mohamed Abadi, chief executive of Vacsera, a national vaccine and serum organisation, said that public banks are responsible for supplying private banks. A television and radio campaign to encourage donations will be launched.
According to Dr Abadi, announcements of blood shortages in certain areas or of certain blood groups will be made in the media. "Egyptians are tender hearted. There will be no shortage in the blood supply, I'm sure," he told the Weekly.
Dr Salwa Youssef, a professor of haematology and the minister's consultant on blood services, predicted that the order would cut the blood supply by 20 per cent.
"The only way to put an end to blood-selling is to be able to get a continuous, regular, honorary contribution," she said. And since blood cannot be stored for more than 35 days, "continuity is no less important than donation."
Youssef said that the ministry needs the cooperation of the media as well as private and public institutions in the campaign to encourage blood donations and have regular honorary donors as in Western countries. "Honorary donors in the West donate their blood every three months," she said.
Dr Medhat Abdel-Hadi, a member of the health committee of the People's Assembly, has proposed a draft law requiring everyone between the ages of 18 and 50 to make at least one blood donation.
But Dr El-Ekiabi rejects the proposal. "I'm against coercive blood donation; besides, it does not guarantee safety."
