Hundreds, probably thousands, of Mexicans like Ms. Delgado come to the United States to trade their plasma for dollars. Eagle Pass, a town of 27,000 that bills itself as the place “where yee-hah meets olé,” has two such plasma collection centers. There are about 15 others in border cities from Brownsville, Tex., to Yuma, Ariz.
The centers are run by pharmaceutical companies that transform the plasma into life-saving but expensive medicines for diseases like immune deficiencies and hemophilia […It] appears that a single plasma donation, for which a donor might be paid $30, results in pharmaceutical products worth at least $300.
Away from the border as well, many plasma collection centers have historically been located in areas of extreme poverty, some with high drug abuse. That troubles some people, who say it might contaminate the plasma supply or the health of people who sell their plasma.
“Why in the United States do we have to depend on people who are down and out to donate?” says Dr. Roger Kobayashi, an immunologist in Omaha who uses plasma products to treat many patients. “You are taking advantage of economically disadvantaged individuals, and I don’t think you are that worried about their health.”
Forgot to mention, the title is misleading. Taking plasma is not taking blood. The PCS2 machine you see above pumps blood out of a donor, spins the blood, separates plasma from the red blood cells and other cells, then pumps those cells back into the donor. The process then repeats itself until the correct amount of plasma is collected (depends on the weight of the donor). The donor, assuming the donation process goes smoothly, has the majority of their blood cells returned back to them. Plasma donation = 2X in a 7 day period. Blood Donation = once every 8 weeks.
One more addition.
The future might end up that we get the life saving proteins taken from human plasma not from humans but from the milk of animals. Transgenic Animals. Animals that have the human gene to produce specific proteins that are expressed in their milk (pigs, goats, rabbits). It’s already FDA approved GTCB.
Fair enough. The Mexicans are bleeding the entire fucking country.
One of my clients, the mom in a homeless family with the dad a recently returned Iraq vet (they’ll be getting into veteran’s housing, told me that she gave plasma weekly in S. Carolina to supplement the family income. Not Mexican. Not Hispanic. American citizen.
I’ve donated plasma, gratis, several times – stopped because it takes so much time – and I give blood, gratis, four times a year. I often wonder if somebody is making money off this. For sure, you pay when you receive plasma, whole blood, or other products.
#5
You’ve got it right there…it takes time. So much time only College Students, poor folks, or those with time on their hands will go.
I donated plasma when I was working as a cable guy 15 years ago. It meant another $150 a month adding that to 1500 a month take home. At the time it was worth alot.
And since I got cash for the ‘donation’ it was great.
It was no doubt a money maker for Baxter Phamra who ran the place. But they gave me cash. And this was in the middle of Iowa. I don’t know what this Nebraska Doctor is carping about.
Ten years ago I was totally broke, and decided to donate plasma. What a pain in the ass.
During the screening interview, the nurse held up a xeroxed map of Africa and pointed to it asking, “have you been to any of these countries in the last year?”
After an hour of waiting, I go in the back to get hooked up to the machine. The room had ten or so machines. Each one hooked up to a transient.
The lines and containers on the machine are transparent, so you can see everyone’s blood. Most of it was the same color: purpley red. But there was one guy, the scraggiest of the bunch, bee boppin’ his head and reading a magazine, and his blood was orange. Fucking orange.
The technicians all looked like nursing school dropouts. The guy working his way down to my machine was chewing gum and listening to headphones.
I got up and left before donating. You have to sit through this four times a month to get the full payout. Screw that. Good luck convincing people to do this for free.
Many are missing the point, if the FDA requires that we collect only US plasma to make products like clotting factor, albumin and IVIG and can’t use plasma from other countries to make these lifesaving products, is it ok to recruit “donors” from other counties like Mexico for money? Dr Kobayashi’s comments are of valid concern. It is not about compensation but how we recruit donors, make sure they remain healthy (the story does point out issues of lack of use of vitamins for nutritional needs because of cost). Also, what is the long-term health effect of donating over 100 times a year for years and why does Germany cap donations at 38? Instead of criticizing a physician we should be looking at the importance of donor health issues and if no there have been no tragedies on the border then how we prevent it from occuring. From donors to recipients everyone’s health is sacred.
Nikki,
The health of the donor is always a factor. It’s why donors are always screened prior to donation and why each donation is tested before it is ok’d to be shipped from the facility. There are NUMEROUS safe guards in place to make sure the plasma collected is safe to use. There are also techniques to cleanse the plasma. Each donor is instructed in what they need to do to be eligible. None of you know because you haven’t worked in the industry. It’s regulated by many agencies. And does the alarmist NY Times article ever prove that unhealthy people are donating and supplying tainted plasma? No. Those that do donate and are found to be infected with a virus or unhealthy are banned from donating. There is a national database, the NDDR ( http://nddr.org/ that keeps track of those who are banned from donating. This is checked when a new donor comes in and if a new donor or existing donor is found to be infected or no longer qualified to donate, the are logged into this system. AFter the problems of the 80’s, believe me, the industry has bent over backwards to make sure the supply is safe and companies are heavily monitored and audited for safety. This is just an attack on the industry because mostly poor people donate for the money. There is no health concern. If there were, you’d know about it very quickly.
#7.
The lines have to be transparent so you can see if there is any clotting. It’s no different than blood donation with exception you get your cells back.
First, I am surprised to learn that a $30 dollar donation only turns into $300 worth of product! I’m willing to bet the collection apparatus costs close to a $100 and then there’s a lot of very expensive processing, storage and transportation not to mention personnel costs.
The title “Blood for Money” is quite misleading and it is worth noting here that blood donations cannot be paid for. Blood is a gift and you find donation centers rotating amongst professional work places, hospitals, government offices, etc.
Ithink you misunderstood my definition of health of the donor. I understand all of the processes that plasma goes through to have a safe end product and that donors need to be repeated donors. When I talk about donor’s health issues, I am concerned about individuals who are “donating” or “selling” their plasma soley because they need money. The economy is bad and people need money. This is why “donations” are up.but when individuals start to consider selling plasma as a job and depend on that income to feed/clothe their children then their own nutritional needs are in danger to begin with and then you add plasma being removed twice a week through a fairly vigorous process…it sounds like a recipe for a health crisis for the donor. It sounds like a system needs to be put in place to educate donors on health promotion, provide nutritional information and coupons for vitamens and other supplements, and collect data on the long-term effects of “donating” plasma for months to years to make sure we are not causing undue harm to those who are giving life to others. If Germany caps donations at 38 and the US at 104, why is there such a difference between the numbers? Maybe the FDA needs to be involved or someother federal agency to determine how best to gather such data since we all want the same outcome a healthy community from the donors to the recipients.
Nikki,
What evidence is there that there is an unhealthy community? There isn’t. Long term studies have been done with people who have been donating a long time and there have been no evidence what so ever of a health problem. The reason why Germany allows fewer donations is because they don’t have a market in place to fractionalize plasma like we do here. Socialized health care doesn’t allow for the investment that the US can afford in recovering the life saving proteins in plasma. It’s why we pay for it and no other countries do. If you took away the payment, many people would die because no one would donate. It’s just that simple.
Warden
Can you site the studies, how many people were followed for how many years? Were these individuals from economically disadvantaged areas. This is all important info for people to be able to see to ensure that donor’s are not being put in jeopardy by the number of plasma “donations”. Still many other issues need to be addressed but if you can share where that data is located it would be well appreciated
Nikki –
I can’t cite any studies. I can tell you when I was in university and later in med school, many of us donated regularly. I did it maybe a couple of times a month. Only for the money. Your plasma is naturally replaced within a few hours. Just drink some water and your healthy body will do the rest. Yes, if you are nutritionally challenged (i.e. starving) then it’s a bad idea. But if you’re starving, you’re not going to pass the screening, anyway.
Donating twice a week isn’t going to hurt any healthy human being (ignoring the very few and seldom seen risks associated with the procedure) and if a person needs the money to help support a family, what’s wrong with that?
Animby,
I think there is a difference between recruiting college students to be donors who are eating and taking care of themselves vs indigent individuals where the money is truly their income. Between reading this story and Aram Roston’s article that was published earlier this year…those crossing the border are and selling plasma is not for altruistic reasons it is because they are desparate for money to survive. Many worked in factories and lost their jobs and selling plasma in the US equals the money they made in the factories. Others graduated college and had heard of others doing this as a “career” but never thought they would be in this situation but to eat and live they are coming to Brownsville to make money by selling their plasma or being a “paid donor”. Advertisements in Mexico over the radio and in the past having buses go across the border and recruit with banners to make easy money and provide visas. Something about this doesn’t sit well. The article doesn’t mention recruitment of donors to sell their plasma and that is where it crosses ethical and moral boundaries. In regards to not understanding long-term health consequenses of being a plasma “donor” for years to decades…major difference of the healthcare coverage that you may have and the lack of healthcare coverage many who depend on this money.
I was under the impression that after a donation, you have a temporary decrease in your ability to clot. Also, the blood thinner they give you has some side effects, very noticible while donating. I know people who have donated hundreds of times, but a nurse – nurse, not technician – at the Red Cross main donor site in Philadelphia, told me to think twice about donating too often because, as she said, “Someday you may need that vein” and I have developed quite a bit of scar tissue from my plasma and whole blood donations.
It is very interesting for me to read this blog. Thank author for it. I like such themes and anything that is connected to this matter. I definitely want to read a bit more soon.
I want to know if there is a system or manner in which to sell healthy blood for more money. For example, I am a vegan, non-smoker. I exercise and have no serious health issues. Compared to a drug user selling blood for rent money or a fix, my blood should be worth more to someone, especially if it is to be used at a time in the patient’s life where their health is the most compromised or at risk.