Blood donations hit by Red Cross scandals
Source: Xinhua |
January 5, 2012, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
MANY would-be blood donors are reluctant to make donations as they believe these would be sold for profit, a survey has revealed.
Mistrust of the China Red Cross Society, which promotes blood donations, follows a series of high-profile scandals.
A 2011 survey of 1,000 people in Shanghai asked those unwilling to donate blood their reasons. Fear of their blood being used for profit ranked the second, after health concerns.
The Beijing Red Cross Blood Center's director, Liu Jiang, attributed a drop in blood donations to controversies that hit the Red Cross in 2011.
In the most high-profile case, the charity came under fire after Guo Meimei, a young woman who claimed to be "a general manager for Red Cross Commerce," posted photographs on the Internet to show off her lavish lifestyle.
Internet users speculated that she may have embezzled funds to buy these items.
While no links between the Red Cross and Guo were found, a lack of supervision and transparency damaged the organization's reputation.
Subsequent mistrust of the Red Cross is thought to have hit the country's blood collection service.
Official statistics show that after years of growth, donations in Beijing in the first half of 2011 dropped 7.31 percent from the same period of 2010.
Figures released by the blood center in Chongqing showed that 105,487 blood donations were made from January to November 2011 - a 5.5-percent decrease year-on-year.
Currently, only 87 out of every 10,000 people donate blood on the Chinese mainland, far less than the 454 in every 10,000 people in high-income countries and 101 in every 10,000 in middle-income countries, according to official statistics.
To alleviate the "blood famine," Zhu Yongming, director of the Shanghai Blood Center, called for greater transparency through public disclosure of accurate information by regulators and blood collection and distribution centers.
Blood centers in some regions now disclose costs for processing blood for clinical use.
Following its own scandals, the Red Cross launched an online platform allowing the public to track donations.
There have been calls for a similar platform on which blood donors could track their donations, and see the lives saved by their act of giving blood.
Mistrust of the China Red Cross Society, which promotes blood donations, follows a series of high-profile scandals.
A 2011 survey of 1,000 people in Shanghai asked those unwilling to donate blood their reasons. Fear of their blood being used for profit ranked the second, after health concerns.
The Beijing Red Cross Blood Center's director, Liu Jiang, attributed a drop in blood donations to controversies that hit the Red Cross in 2011.
In the most high-profile case, the charity came under fire after Guo Meimei, a young woman who claimed to be "a general manager for Red Cross Commerce," posted photographs on the Internet to show off her lavish lifestyle.
Internet users speculated that she may have embezzled funds to buy these items.
While no links between the Red Cross and Guo were found, a lack of supervision and transparency damaged the organization's reputation.
Subsequent mistrust of the Red Cross is thought to have hit the country's blood collection service.
Official statistics show that after years of growth, donations in Beijing in the first half of 2011 dropped 7.31 percent from the same period of 2010.
Figures released by the blood center in Chongqing showed that 105,487 blood donations were made from January to November 2011 - a 5.5-percent decrease year-on-year.
Currently, only 87 out of every 10,000 people donate blood on the Chinese mainland, far less than the 454 in every 10,000 people in high-income countries and 101 in every 10,000 in middle-income countries, according to official statistics.
To alleviate the "blood famine," Zhu Yongming, director of the Shanghai Blood Center, called for greater transparency through public disclosure of accurate information by regulators and blood collection and distribution centers.
Blood centers in some regions now disclose costs for processing blood for clinical use.
Following its own scandals, the Red Cross launched an online platform allowing the public to track donations.
There have been calls for a similar platform on which blood donors could track their donations, and see the lives saved by their act of giving blood.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
