Military to crack down on blood 'merchants'

Military to crack down on blood 'merchants'

JAKARTA (JP): Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Sjafrie
Sjamsoeddin threatened yesterday to punish scalpers who exploited
blood donors to rake in quick profits.

He said the scalpers would buy blood directly from donors, who
are generally poor, and then sell it at much higher prices to
people who badly needed it.

Sjafrie said the military would cooperate with the police to
identify and catch the blood merchants, whose actions are
worrying Indonesian Red Cross (PMI).

"It's an inhuman business," he told reporters at his office.
"It's just not right to trade in people's blood."

Sjafrie was responding to an appeal made by the chairwoman of
PMI's Jakarta chapter, Uga Wiranto, to rid the capital of blood
scalpers.

Uga said yesterday that a few months ago a PMI official caught
a scalper while collecting bags of blood taken from donors that
were to be sold to a family who needed blood immediately.

She said that the scalper took a second donation of blood from
one person only three hours after the first; doctors generally
recommend a break of at least three months between donations.

"The donor was most likely a laid-off worker who was
desperately in need of cash. The scalper promised him Rp 100,000
(US$11.60) for donating his blood," she said.

"The patient who received the blood did not care. As long as
he could escape from death, he was willing to pay big cash," said
Uga, who is the wife of Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto.

Uga said PMI did not guarantee that patients would get healthy
blood if they took blood from people who gave it more regularly
than every three months.

"It would harm PMI's reputation, and also the patient's health
as the patient would not know if he or she had received clean
blood," she said.

Yesterday, members of the military command and their relatives
donated about 300 bags of blood. The volume of each bag was 250
cubic centiliters.

The blood will be donated to the PMI headquarters, which will
distribute it to 22 blood banks and 279 hospitals throughout
Greater Jakarta.

In Jakarta alone, Uga said that about 600 blood bags were
required every day.

She said that PMI charged a service fee, which has been raised
from Rp 12,000 per bag to Rp 17,500 at state hospitals and from
Rp 32,000 to Rp 52,500 at private hospitals in Jakarta.

"PMI does not sell blood to hospitals. We only charge a
service fee," she said.

Uga said the money was used to pay the salaries of PMI
officials, who have to work 24 hours a day, as "they are not paid
by the government." (09)