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With most charity teams in hiding and common blood donors afraid or unwilling to donate at state-run services, unlawful “blood brokers” are more and more preying on these in want amid a blood scarcity.
By FRONTIER
As a substitute of resting, 60-year-old U Maung spent the times earlier than his coronary heart surgical procedure in a frantic seek for 5 models of A-positive blood. His heart specialist at Yangon’s Ar Yu Worldwide Hospital mentioned he wanted to safe the blood earlier than his operation, deliberate for February 2.
Since final yr’s coup, blood donations at public hospitals and on the state-run Nationwide Blood Centre in Yangon have dropped dramatically. Provides had already been declining all through the pandemic, however with the junta focusing on humanitarian teams that acquire blood donations and scary individuals from interacting with any state services, provides are actually critically low, blood donation associations and common donors say.
As a result of low provides and a scarcity of donors, U Maung’s household was nonetheless one unit quick on February 1. Determined, they turned to Ko Hla Oo, an in depth household buddy whose father is U Maung’s finest buddy.
Hla Oo contacted buddies of his at impartial charity blood donation teams and at Yangon monasteries, the place Buddhist monks usually function emergency donors. By the top of the day, nevertheless, he was nonetheless empty-handed.
“I used to be at a loss,” Hla Oo informed Frontier.
In the long run, U Maung and Hla Oo lucked out. Lower than seven hours earlier than the operation, an in depth buddy of Hla Oo’s posted an attraction on a Fb blood donation group. Simply 4 hours earlier than U Maung’s surgical procedure, a 28-year-old male from Yangon’s Thingangyun Township lastly contacted Hla Oo with excellent news: he was A-positive, totally vaccinated and able to donate.
“All I might do was sigh with aid,” Hla Oo mentioned.
The person got here instantly to Ar Yu.
“We acquired the unit of blood in time for his surgical procedure,” Hla Oo mentioned. “It was a slim escape certainly.”
For a lot of others, nevertheless, that final minute donation by no means comes – or it comes at a excessive worth. Low provides and resistance to working with junta-run establishments have led many sufferers and their households, like U Maung’s, to depend on word-of-mouth and on-line social networks for vital blood donations. These casual networks have opened cracks for nefarious “blood brokers” to sport the system, gouging determined households of their instances of best want.
Donorship down
In 2019, the NBC acquired almost 300 donors a day and despatched greater than 9,000 models of blood to hospitals throughout the town each month, in keeping with data it has made public on-line. Throughout the pandemic, these numbers each dropped by greater than half. All through 2020 the centre issued pressing appeals for wholesome adults to donate amid a pointy decline attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, usually spreading the message by the press.
The centre is now not publishing donation numbers and because the coup, NBC Deputy Director Dr Thida Aung has refused to talk to the media. Common NBC donors, nevertheless, informed Frontier they’ve witnessed donations drying up, dropping considerably from what was already a low level.
“The quantity of people that donate blood on the NBC decreased when COVID-19 started spreading within the nation, however that quantity has fallen dramatically because the coup,” mentioned Ko Aung Ko Ko, an everyday donor from Yangon’s Tarmwe Township.
Aung Ko Ko mentioned he has donated 26 instances in his life, together with 14 instances on the NBC. He mentioned when he went in August 2019, there have been almost 70 different donors on the NBC. He noticed solely 11 when he went in September 2021 and solely 4 when he went in January this yr. A number of different donors additionally informed Frontier the variety of donors dropped throughout COVID-19 and dropped once more after the coup.
“We’re having a tough time as a result of the army has been focusing on humanitarian teams,” mentioned Ko Zaw Zaw Aung, an everyday donor from Yangon’s Thaketa Township.
In earlier years, as a lot as 70 p.c of the centre’s blood provides had come from such charity teams. Because the coup the army has reportedly arrested charity employees on a number of events, both for offering healthcare to wounded protesters or for making an attempt to deal with individuals for COVID-19 outdoors of state-run establishments.
Even within the midst of Myanmar’s devastating Delta wave in 2021, safety forces cracked down on parallel well being establishments, going so far as arresting docs whereas as many as lots of of hundreds died.
“Earlier than the coup, it was doable [in an emergency] for individuals to donate blood 24 hours a day, however now, with the junta’s nightly curfew, this isn’t the case,” Zaw Zaw Aung added. “We will now not donate blood to sufferers who want blood models urgently [at night].”
U Aung Soe, the chief of a charity blood donor group in Yangon’s Thingangyun Township, estimated some 70pc of the 100-plus blood donation teams that operated earlier than the coup have ceased working.
“Junta troopers arrest each younger person who tries to donate, accusing them with out motive of getting ties to the Individuals’s Defence Forces,” he mentioned, referring to the armed teams which have sprung up throughout the nation in armed resistance to army rule. “In consequence, their mother and father don’t dare allow them to donate blood – which has led to the present disaster.”
His personal group has seen its pool of normal donors dwindle from 500 to only 75.
“The unmet want for blood at hospitals elevated after the coup d’état, after most donation teams and associations stopped working,” mentioned the chief of a unique donor group that’s nonetheless operatingin Yangon’s Thingangyun Township who spoke on situation of anonymity because of security issues.
Whereas most donors are avoiding junta-run services, some are nonetheless attracting a number of donors. Ko Tin Maung Oo, a 35-year-old South Okkalapa donor, mentioned he doesn’t need to wait the 4 or 5 hours it normally takes to donate at non-public hospitals.
“Drawing blood on the NBC takes about simply half-hour,” he mentioned. “Donating blood at hospitals takes a very long time – generally we’d wait the entire day to donate.”
The time discrepancy has to do with completely different strategies of testing blood for infectious illnesses. Personal hospitals sometimes take a look at the blood first, and donors can wait hours for his or her outcomes. If they’re clear, solely then do they acquire extra blood to donate. In distinction, the NBC takes the blood first, permitting the donors to depart, after which checks it earlier than delivering it to the sufferers.
Of the 20 common blood donors Frontier spoke to within the first two weeks of February, 10 had solely donated on to somebody in want, 5 had solely donated to the NBC, three had donated to each and two had stopped donating altogether after their mother and father forbade it.
“The variety of particular person donors is declining, and the variety of blood brokers round hospitals is rising,” the Thingangyun group chief mentioned.
Finders’ charges
Although numbers are exhausting to return by due to the observe’s illicit nature, particular person blood donors and charity donation group volunteers informed Frontier they’ve seen the variety of “blood brokers” enhance because the coup.
These brokers hang around round hospitals and set up a rapport with employees, looking for data on sufferers and what blood varieties they want. They then safe blood from donors they discover on-line whereas posing as sufferers and promote the provision on to the actual sufferers at exorbitant costs.
Sources say one unit – a few pint’s value – of frequent blood varieties like O, A, B and AB-positive promote for just below K100,000, or about US$56.62, whereas rarer blood varieties like AB-negative, can promote for between K500,000 and K700,000. However costs may also rise if brokers sense they’ll get extra.
“The dealer sells at a worth relying on the household’s want and means,” mentioned U Thura Aung, a member of a donation group in Thaketa. “They’ll increase the value if the household can afford it, or if the affected person is rich.”
In Yangon, sources mentioned, brokers are typically concentrated across the metropolis’s remaining common non-public hospitals. That is partly as a result of many public hospitals have shut down because of a scarcity of employees over the previous yr on account of the nationwide Civil Disobedience Motion following the coup, through which lots of of hundreds of public servants walked off their jobs.
The difficulty of blood brokers is just not a brand new downside. The Nationwide League for Democracy authorities that was ousted n February 2021 had, in its earlier time period, investigated and prosecuted blood brokers, mentioned U Htay Kyi from a North Okkalapa donation group. He mentioned this crackdown led to a discount within the observe, but it surely has surged once more because the coup, with many appearing much more openly than previously.
“Now, nobody arrests them, in order that they do no matter they need,” he mentioned.
Whereas Frontier couldn’t independently confirm that declare, a number of different charity teams additionally confirmed that the observe was being reformed underneath the NLD however appears to have revived underneath the junta.
Aung Soe, the chief of the Thingangyun group, mentioned these brokers usually impersonate members of reliable donation teams by carrying counterfeit badges or clothes misrepresenting themselves, then use the disguise to glean details about these in want.
“They persuade employees at non-public hospitals. They used to say, ‘inform us how a lot blood you need, and we are going to seek for it and return,” he mentioned. Whereas some hospital employees are being hoodwinked, Aung Soe additionally believes some are actually working with the donors and taking a lower of the earnings.
In December, a dealer contacted Thura Aung, from the donation group in Thaketa, pretending to be a affected person in want of 1 unit of AB-positive blood for an impending surgical procedure at a widely known non-public hospital in Hlaing Tharyar Township. When Thura Aung and a volunteer donor met the dealer on the hospital, he was unable to confirm that he was a affected person, and so they realised it was a rip-off. They quickly discovered the actual affected person, delivering the blood to him straight.
Thura Aung mentioned the dealer was planning to promote it for K450,000.
“We met straight with the affected person who was urgently in want of blood on the hospital and we donated the AB (RhD Optimistic) blood unit that he wanted. No must pay cash,” Thura Aung mentioned.
However whereas this transaction was stopped, the dealer by no means confronted authorized penalties. Thura Aung mentioned he believes hospitals are reluctant to report brokers as a result of the media consideration it’d carry might harm their popularity. Frontier tried to contact officers from 4 non-public hospitals and from the Myanmar Personal Hospitals’ Affiliation. Just one answered their cellphone, the managing director of the hospital the place Thura Aung encountered the blood dealer. She mentioned the hospital has pursued no authorized motion in opposition to blood brokers and refused to reply extra questions concerning the problem.
The dearth of motion from hospitals and lack of religion within the police implies that some charity teams are trying to take justice into their very own arms. Aung Soe mentioned his blood donation group quickly detained a dealer for a number of hours after catching him at a personal hospital in Sanchaung final yr. They warned him to not return and to cease worth gouging however noticed him on the hospital once more only one month later.
Frontier tried contacting 5 blood brokers, whose cellphone numbers have been supplied by charity teams. Three of the numbers have been disconnected and the 2 others hung up as quickly because the reporter requested concerning the blood dealer problem.
This downside doesn’t appear to be going away, both. Donors and would-be donors that Frontier spoke with overwhelmingly mentioned they really feel extra snug donating on to people in want and their households than to junta-run establishments.
“They now not imagine that blood given at the NBC or at public hospitals are reaching the sufferers who want it, in order that they solely donate straight [through Facebook groups or word-of-mouth networks],” mentioned Ko Min Aung, a donor from Sanchaung Township.
This may proceed to show donors and recipients to unscrupulous brokers making the most of the breakdown of rule of legislation, however many donors appear prepared to take that danger.
“Most younger individuals are decided by no means to donate blood at army hospitals,” Min Aung mentioned.
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