Tainted blood on the rise, PMI says
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta Red Cross (PMI Jakarta) has revealed that donated blood contaminated with hepatitis B and C, HIV and syphilis is increasing.
PMI Jakarta found that in 2003, 5 percent of the 230,000 blood pouches, or 11,500, were contaminated. The number is higher than in 2002 when only 3 percent of 214,129 blood pouches were contaminated, in total, an increase of around 60 percent.
PMI Jakarta blood transfusion unit head Erlita L. Johan said on Friday that the infected blood came from donors who had hepatitis or HIV and the bacteria that caused syphilis.
"We can't reject people who want to donate blood because it's a noble act. We have a procedure to screen the donated blood so that we know that certain donors' blood is contaminated. However, we don't get the test results until eight hours after the person has donated the blood," she said.
The procedure for blood donation necessitates the donors to be examined first by a doctor before they can donate blood. They also must give a blood sample to be screened, while the blood to be donated is taken at the same time.
According to the PMI 2002 report, the institution uses the Enzym Immuno Assay (Elisa) test to screen the blood before they decide to use it for transfusion. If this test reveals the possibility of disease, the hospital will examine the blood with the donors' approval by using the Western Blott test. The test will identify the specific virus or bacteria.
Currently, 3.4 percent of donated blood is contaminated with hepatitis B, 0.5 percent with syphilis, 0.11 percent with HIV and 0.14 with hepatitis C.
It means there are 36,300 blood donors carrying the HIV virus in 2003 in Jakarta while official reports state that there are only 120,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Indonesia.
Data from the Ministry of Health shows that the prevalence of HIV among blood recipients increased sharply from 0.002 percent in 1992 to 0.15 percent in 2000.
Iskandar Sitorus of the Indonesian Institution of Legal Aid Foundation for Health (LBH Kesehatan) argued that the contamination showed PMI could not do its job properly and proposed that the task of collecting blood should be given to the health ministry.
"We are talking about human life here. They could be mistaken when giving blood to recipients (and give contaminated blood instead). It is not clear also whether they are able to discover all the contaminated blood," he said.
"Besides, there is no law that protects people who contract a dangerous disease from blood transfusions."
Both Erlita and Sujudi, the chairman of the blood transfusion unit at the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), acknowledged that a lack of funds was still an obstacle to performing a complete blood examination and processing of blood products at PMI.