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)