Are donating blood and donating plasma very different?

Recently, reports that a 19-year-old boy in Shanxi died due to suspected repeated blood selling, donated plasma 16 times for a fee in 8 months, and his family questioned whether the plasma station was "recruiting people" have sparked heated discussions.

On the evening of March 19, the Health and Sports Bureau of Xinfu District, Yizhou City, Shanxi Province issued a report on the matter, saying that the company involved had suspended operations for rectification and was cooperating with the investigation.

What aspects of public opinion focused on this incident? Yanjianweishi sorted them out.

1. Did the plasma station involved collect blood in compliance with regulations?

According to the report, the company involved, Xinzhou Tiantan Biological, was approved to be established in 2011 and is a subsidiary of China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation. It conducts plasma collection business in some counties and districts of Xinzhou City. Eye Health noted that Xinzhou Tiantan Biological is a subsidiary of Beijing Tiantan Biological indirectly held by Chengdu Rongsheng Pharmaceutical.

According to Red Star News, on January 16, the day after the boy's death, his father found a stack of hospital checkup sheets while sorting out his belongings, showing that the boy had "heart palpitations to be investigated, pancytopenia, severe anemia," and suspected hematopoietic dysfunction. He learned from his son's mobile chat records that since May 2023, his son has gone to the Xinzhou plasma station to donate plasma almost every month. He suspected that his son's death was related to the long-term and continuous paid plasma donation.

In response, the plasma station involved stated that the teenager would undergo a physical examination every time he came to donate plasma. The last time was on December 19, 2023. The physical examination did not find any symptoms of anemia.

On March 20, Beijing Tiantan Bio released an announcement stating that the "shortest interval between plasma donations is 12 days" mentioned in the report was false information, and the Xinzhou Plasma Station strictly followed relevant regulations to ensure that the interval between plasma donations by plasma donors was no less than 14 days. At the same time, after checking the basic information such as the age of the plasma donor and the relevant physical examination data when he donated plasma, the conditions met the requirements for plasma collection.

According to the "Instructions for Plasma Donors (2021 Edition)" issued by the General Office of the National Health Commission, plasma donors are required to undergo strict physical examinations and blood tests, and plasma can only be extracted after passing the tests. For regular plasma donors, blood tests can be done first and then tested.

Among them, the physical examination includes 10 requirements such as age, weight, blood pressure, pulse, etc., and the blood test items include 9 items such as blood type, hemoglobin content and serum total protein content.

Screenshot from "Instructions for Plasma Donors (2021 Edition)"

According to Red Star News, many friends of the deceased told reporters that they had donated plasma at the Xinzhou Plasma Station many times. They only measured their blood pressure before donating plasma, and sometimes they didn't even have blood drawn for testing.

In response to these issues, the official report stated that the Xinfu District working group has entered the company involved and is investigating and verifying the company's organizational mobilization, health consultation, hemoglobin testing and other work links for plasma collection, as well as the circumstances of the deceased's plasma donation.

2. There is only one word difference. What is the difference between a blood station and a plasma station?

During this public opinion storm, Yanjianweishi also noticed that many netizens did not understand the differences between blood stations and plasma stations, and between blood donation and plasma donation.

Comments from netizens on social platforms

The blood bank is a public welfare institution supported by the state

First, Article 2, Article 8, and Article 11 of the Blood Donation Law of the People's Republic of China clearly state that the country implements a voluntary blood donation system; blood stations are institutions that collect and provide blood for clinical use and are non-profit public welfare organizations.

Plasma stations are self-financing medical enterprises

Plasma stations are affiliated to blood product manufacturers, not non-profit organizations, and are self-financing enterprises. Blood product manufacturers should set up plasma collection stations in accordance with local plasma collection station setting plans and be approved by the health administrative departments of the provincial, autonomous regional, and municipal people's governments. The nutrition fees received by plasma donors after donating plasma are also the corporate behavior of the plasma collection stations themselves.

After collecting plasma, the single-collection plasma station supplies it to production companies to be processed into different blood products. The processed plasma cannot be used for clinical blood transfusions and can only be provided to production companies as raw materials.

Blood donations and plasma donations are collected differently

Blood donation usually refers to donating whole blood. Plasma donation is to separate the plasma components from whole blood through specific equipment, and return the red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets to the donor.

Whole blood is different from plasma

Donating plasma in moderation does not cause obvious harm to most healthy people, but people with low immunity and coagulation disorders cannot donate plasma. After people with coagulation disorders donate plasma, their coagulation function will be further damaged and they are more likely to have bleeding symptoms.

According to Red Star News, the deceased went to the local county hospital for examination before his death. The hospital admission certificate showed that his admission condition was "critical" and the outpatient diagnosis was "heart palpitations to be investigated, pancytopenia, severe anemia", and suspected hematopoietic dysfunction. In the serum test report of the day, many indicators such as "serum total bilirubin determination", "serum direct bilirubin determination", "serum total protein determination", and "lactate dehydrogenase determination" were no longer within the normal reference value.

Today, the young boy has passed away. As the official investigation deepens, we hope that this incident can be properly handled and a fair answer can be given to the family of the deceased and the public. We also hope that this tragedy will not happen again.

References:

[1] Notice of the General Office of the National Health Commission on the issuance of the Notice for Plasma Donors (2021 Edition)

http://www.nhc.gov.cn/yzygj/s7658/202109/ca7e7e1972ec4e939c613aa67f7434e1.shtml

[2] A 19-year-old boy died after having his blood drawn 16 times for a fee? He was diagnosed with severe anemia and the authorities have launched an investigation

https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_26746091

[3] Many friends of the 19-year-old plasma donor said they had donated blood at the same site and had not undergone a strict physical examination

https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_26758507

[4] The mystery of a 19-year-old boy’s sudden death in Shanxi reflects the chaos of the “plasma economy”

https://news.e23.cn/jnnews/2024-03-21/2024032100056.html