When I had to change the day and route of driving from my suburban home because of never-ending traffic jams, I had to plunge into a rather odd everyday life of people living on the outskirts of the suburban city of Noginsk. What struck me most were lines of people waiting at the doors of the local blood transfusion station. I could not believe that there were so many responsible blood donors among our people. My skeptical attitude was soon corroborated by the Research Center of the Superjob.ru portal which reported that the capital city lacked 39% of the donor blood it actually needed. For Russia this figure is even higher – up to 47%. When I shared my observations with my neighbor Mikhail, a local dweller, he chuckled in response: “This is just a good way for people to moonlight.”
With average monthly wages of 500-600 USD and massive unemployment in the nearby villages, donating blood for $50 and plasma for $100 provides a good addition to the family budget. So many people get up early in the morning to donate their blood and then rush to their offices if they have a job. For many a mandatory charity breakfast – sweet tea, chocolate and a sandwich – is often a great blessing given that even employed townsfolk often lack money to buy these at the end of each month and here they can get this simple ration free of charge.
Medical personnel easily recognize those donors who come twice a month or more often. Though some try to prove that their bodies only benefit from frequent blood donation, they are often not admitted for the sake of their health.
I remembered about forced donors when I saw discouraging statistics. As reported by the same Research Center on Superjob.ru, on the eve of the World Donor Day 42% of Russians donated their blood to help people, including 19% people of scanty means who moonlight for better living in this way. In other words, for almost half of all donors blood letting is a forced measure. In other parts of the world people are not very eager to donate their blood either. According to the UN data, about 52% of EU citizens are volunteer donors. In the US and Canada this figure is slightly higher – up to 58%. People readily donate their blood only in Japan (almost 69%) and China (about 67%). There is a shortage of donor blood in the world all the same, because there are several blood groups, blood can be stored just a short time, and people in Russia and elsewhere donate their blood only occasionally, while the ever-increasing volume of blood is daily needed for transfusions.
A new international day was proclaimed by the UN for refilling blood banks. UN doctors christened it as the festival of “life champions” or the World Donor Day. The Austrian immunologist Karl Landsteiner, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1868 for discovering blood groups, became the first life champion. The problem is that the number of such volunteers the world over is not sufficient to rescue those in need of blood. For instance, 58% of Russians have never donated their blood, although 32% of those have never done that on medical indications. They either had an epidemic jaundice or doctors do not recommend them to let in their blood for health reasons. However, 28% honestly admit that they have never let in blood. Why? About 10% of all Russians who have never donated blood say they are too lazy or have no time to go to a blood transfusion station. Another 8% of respondents confess they fear these manipulations, 5% are apprehensive of contracting infections, and 4% faint while letting their blood.
While the latter group’s unwillingness is understandable, those who are too lazy to be blood donors shed some light on the reasons behind the shortage of donor blood. About 4% of all respondents said they had no time for “such procedures interfering with their daily routine,” 3% never felt the need to donate blood, 2% do not know anything about the location of blood transfusion stations, another 2% just do not want to let in their blood, the same amount (2%) do not donate blood because they had never thought of donation, 3% sincerely believe they need all of their blood (“bosses suck my blood so I do not have much”), and finally 1% have never done that because nobody had ever proposed this to them, “a blood transfusion station is too far from my home”, and some do not have a permanent residence permit.
Those who are not ready to find fault with these figures may say they fit within statistical discrepancy of 3-4% which, according to sociologists, do not have a strong impact upon the survey results. They may be right. But when you realize that even 1% of healthy and prosperous people could donate blood to those who do not just need it badly, but whose lives could be rescued thanks to this blood transfusion, you feel like a cat on hot bricks. In this instance the Latin word “donor” or “donare” coming from the verb “donate” takes on a real meaning, since volunteer donors may rescue real lives. Nowadays this blood is increasingly often donated by those who need a different “civilization blood” – the money. This is perhaps a mode of human interdependence. But because of the growing number of forced donors, the World Donor Day has degraded into the day of survival in Russia. Certainly this was not the original intention of those who initiated this humanitarian festival.
Vladimir Emelianenko
