Most European countries have a shortage of blood and blood products, medications that are increasingly used, while the United States, which pays for donations, has turned this sector into big business.
According to data from the Blood and Tissue Bank of Catalonia, 70% of the plasma produced by the US for the manufacture of blood products is destined for Europe. And it is becoming more and more necessary. Since 2010, the use of immunoglobulins has doubled. Half is dedicated to treatments for primary immunodeficiencies, congenital diseases that make it difficult to build defenses to fight infections.
Catalonia aims to triple plasma donations in three years
Plasma donations in Catalonia barely cover a third of the needs of the more than 3,000 people who require blood-derived medications – from plasma proteins – for life and the more than 4,000 patients who receive plasma transfusions annually. The Banc de Sang i Teixits and the Department of Health have started a campaign, which will last 24 months, with the aim of tripling donations. “I encourage citizens, who are altruistic, to also be altruistic in plasma donations and to help us become 50% self-sufficient in 2025,” said Health Minister Manel Balcells. In his opinion, Catalonia should only have to import the plasma necessary for minor issues.
The “country objective” of the authorities is really ambitious. In 2022, a total of 11,826 people gave plasma in Catalonia, most of them once, and the rest (44%), two or more times, for a total of 21,692 donations. The campaign aims to reach 40,000 donations next year and 50,000 in 2025. According to Roser Vallès, director of the Blood Bank’s plasma program, it is plausible: “Each person gave an average of 1.83 times last year; This average can increase, and on the other hand it is about getting new donors.”
Plasma extraction
Europe’s dependence on US plasma is almost general. Only countries that, like the United States, remunerate donations are saved: Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary. The rest, subject to altruistic donation, must matter.
One of the objectives of the current Spanish presidency of the Council of Europe is to approve a new regulation – in a very advanced stage – on Blood, Tissues and Cells (SoHO) which reaffirms the principle of “voluntary and unpaid donations”, altruistic, but compensation is provided to ensure that donors are not financially disadvantaged (parking, transport ticket…), which “should never constitute an incentive that could induce potential donors to provide false information or to donate more “frequency than permitted.”
Councilor Manel Balcells, in the presentation of the campaign
In the US, two plasma donations are allowed per week (96 per year), and in Spain, 2 per month (24 per year). There, a regular donor can earn around 400 euros per month according to Grífols calculations, which allows two extractions of 750 ml per month with a minimum separation of 7 days between them. “We know that your time is valuable, so we offer you compensation for the time and effort you dedicate to us in our donation centers,” advertises the Catalan pharmacist.
The prices stipulated by the Spanish health system for each unit of frozen plasma with various characteristics (quarantined, IgA deficient, inactivated with ultraviolet radiation or inactivated with methylene blue) range between 60 and 100 euros.
“Plasma is the great unknown of donations,” explains Roser Vallès, alluding to the country’s leadership in organ donations and blood figures. It can be given more frequently than blood, since recovery is faster and can last between 40 and 60 minutes. It consists of blood extraction, cell separation, plasma retention (55%) and the return of the rest to the patient through the same route.
An American can make two donations a week; a Spanish, two a month
According to Vallès, the big problem with the lack of plasma donations – the blood fluid, very rich in mineral salts and proteins – is ignorance. The Generalitat’s campaign and the future EU regulation go along this line: encouraging donation by underlining the principle of free donation, “essential to eliminate abuses and guarantee the security of SoHO’s supply.”
The Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU indicates that the fields of medicine and biology must respect “the prohibition of the human body or its parts as such becoming an object of profit.” Member States should take this into account when defining the rules on the granting of these compensations in their national legislation.
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2023-10-03 05:31:02
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