Blood shortage prompts drive for donations

People donating blood at a hospital in Yixing city, Jiangsu province. Only 87 out of every 10,000 people on the Chinese mainland donate blood, far less than the average of 454 for every 10,000 people in developed countries and the World Health Organization-recommended figure of 100 for every 10,000, according to data from the Ministry of Health. Min Xueping / For China Daily

It never occurred to Huang Haili that she would need to give blood before her aunt, who needs a blood transfusion during surgery, can be operated on.

Huang, a woman in her early 30s who lives in Nanning, the capital of South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, said the hospital asked her to persuade relatives and friends to donate blood.

She was required to find 3,000 milliliters of blood for her aunt, who was suffering serious gastrointestinal disease. The surgery was due the next day.

"I am not a local and none of my family members live here so I had to ask more than 20 co-workers to help," said Huang who had just donated blood at a center in Nanning.

After screening, only several of her co-workers were eligible to give blood, she said.

Huang was lucky to find donors in time. There are cases of people having their operations postponed because they could not find enough blood.

An acute blood shortage in Nanning was to blame for the "mandatory" donations, said Xiao Hongguang, an official with the city's blood center.

The center's blood stock drops sharply every year in summer when college students go on vacation, he said.

In China, college students and soldiers make up the bulk of voluntary blood donors.

The center usually stores an average of 800,000 milliliters of blood but the stock has fallen by half over the past few months, according to Xiao.

The nation has been suffering from blood shortages because the number of donors is reportedly too small compared with the rising demand.

Currently, only 87 of every 10,000 people on the Chinese mainland donate blood, far less than the average of 454 for every 10,000 people in developed countries and the World Health Organization-recommended figure of 100 for every 10,000, according to data from the Ministry of Health.

To ease the chronic blood shortages, the country's blood donation law encourages patients whose conditions allow them to choose a date for their operation to have their blood stored for their own use and persuade family members, relatives and friends to give blood for them.

What the country encourages in law is known as "mutual help blood donation".

However, the law only "encourages" people to donate their blood and never stipulates that anyone should be forced to donate.

"Such a covert rule is unbelievable. Hospitals are supposed to save lives. They would be taking advantage of patients if they force them to find blood donors when they are in desperate need of surgery," said netizen "fangkainagemeizhi" at a forum on gxsky.com - a famous local web portal managed from Nanning.

Several hospitals in Nanning all declined Xinhua's request for an interview.

A Ministry of Health official told a news conference in June that the "mutual help blood donation" is not mandatory and should not be a major source of clinical blood stock.

It only suits patients who do not need immediate surgery, said Guo Yanhong, deputy director of the ministry's medical administration department.

What happens in Nanning is not an isolated case. Many big cities have resorted to the "blood for blood" policy because hospitals are running out of blood due to high demand from both locals and residents from smaller cities or rural areas who come to the better-equipped hospitals in more densely populated areas.

It is important to raise public awareness of the issue because many still think that donating blood will harm their health and could even give them diseases, said Hu Xiaoqin, a professor with the Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine.

The key solutions also include strictly implementing the law, which provides voluntary blood donors with preferential treatment when they need blood themselves. They may be prioritized on waiting lists and exempted from fees, said Zhou Keda, a researcher with the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences.

Those provisions, however, are not well implemented, which can potentially deter would-be donors, Zhou said.