Private hospitals trade in “blood plasma” … too!

With the Corona epidemic spreading, the main concern in dealing with this emerging virus was finding appropriate drugs or treatment techniques to eliminate it. The experiences intensified and multiplied, some of which reached safety and others failed and remained a mere experiment. Among the experiments that have proven its effectiveness, even on a case-by-case basis, is the “convalescent plasma” technique, which is used as the last “cartridge” in the treatment of patients suffering from acute lung infections. In other words, it comes to the end of the day, either to strengthen the patient’s immunity and thus his survival, or to give up. Treatment with this technique is based on taking antibodies from people who were infected and later recovered, and injecting them into the patient’s body. These bodies are generally found in plasma, which is the liquid part of the blood, and has therefore been called “convalescent plasma.”

Lebanon began using this technology after several countries, including Iran, the United States, France, Italy, and other countries, witnessed a high number of infections. But what is “different” here is that obtaining this technology is very expensive in many cases, either in terms of the effort that the patient’s family must make to find donors, or in terms of the “price” of the plasma unit, which differs among the blood banks of the hospitals that care for Corona patients.
In the first part, there was a loss in the way the blood samples were collected, since there was no body to coordinate the matter, which motivated the patients’ relatives to operate WhatsApp groups or organize bank tours of blood. Despite the spread of the epidemic in the country to the point of losing control over it, the issue of plasma remained outside the framework of the monitoring of the Ministry of Public Health. According to sources, “the Ministry of Health has nothing to do with this medical procedure, which is carried out with a free donation from patients who have recovered from the virus in hospitals that receive the fees that correspond to them.” Based on that, there is no possibility for the Ministry to establish a blood bank specialized in plasma, especially since “the donor cannot be forced to donate.” From here, the patient’s family and the hospital are left. In light of this reality, some have worked to develop individual initiatives to help patients’ families find donors, including what the municipality of Ghobeiry started under the title of ‘blood and plasma bank’, which is a group that forms a link between the family of the patient and the donor, in addition to another initiative of several pharmacists. Circulating a list among them that includes the names of the people who have recovered from Corona and are willing to donate to other initiatives.

The cost of blood plasma in private hospitals ranges between 760 thousand pounds and 1 million and 400 thousand

However, as usual, some people took advantage of this technology to reap profit, which is evidenced by the difference in the prices of plasma units between one blood bank and another. As the “price” indicates, there are “5 star” and “governmental” plasma. A doctor who works in a government hospital explains that, in the absence of a role for the Ministry of Health, “some hospitals took advantage of the issue and began to set the prices they wanted.” He points out that the cost of preparing the plasma treatment spans three stages, “In the first stage the donor blood sample is drawn and we work to separate the sample at a cost of 100,000 Syrian pounds, and then we perform tests on the sample to ensure its safety at a cost of 114 thousand Syrian pounds, and before injecting the patient with it, there is The last stage, which is testing the level of immunity (IGG), at a cost of 50 thousand ». Thus, the total cost is “264 thousand pounds, plus the price of the bag of blood.” The machine used to separate the sample “is supposed to be in the hospital.” As for what some blood banks do in hospitals, it is that “they try to charge a sample with all the costs from the cost of work equipment to protective clothing and so on.”
At a time when the cost of the sample in the ‘government’ is about 300 thousand pounds to be ready as a treatment, a tour of the blood banks in the hospitals that treat Corona patients is enough, so the cost of preparing the sample is between 760 thousand pounds and one million and 400 thousand. And they return the price at the “cost of tests required by the sample”! Others attribute it to donors who request financial compensation in exchange for giving samples. However, regardless of those reasons that may be truly influential, how to justify the difference, which sometimes exceeds a million pounds? Where is the ministry of what is happening? And does self-distancing also apply to what some blood banks do with regard to the plasma trade?