By James Palmer
Newhouse News Service, 08 April 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Drained by the deadly sectarian attacks this year, Iraq's central blood bank now faces two very different problems: precious reserves that no longer keep pace with demand and a sudden wave of new donors it can't tap quickly enough.
"The fighting is overwhelming us," says Haider Al-Shammari, director of Iraq's National Blood Transfusion Center.
The problem has been growing since the February bombing of a venerable Shiite shrine in northern Iraq sparked the current wave of sectarian violence. On the worst days, demand can be double or triple the 350 to 500 pints the transfusion center tries to maintain, Al-Shammari says.
"Keeping the blood in supply is a vicious cycle," says Manof Jasim, a hematologist at the center.
Faced with the shortages, the center made several emergency appeals for donations through television, radio and newspapers.
So many Iraqis are responding, the center's staff of about 150 now works around the clock in eight-hour shifts.
"These people love their country and feel a need to do humanitarian deeds, but we have so many coming in that it's sometimes impossible to keep up," says Sidaqa Hassan, 42, a nurse who has worked at the center for 20 years.
Meanwhile, the staffing challenge gets tougher. "We lose many employees every week because they're afraid to travel here, or they want to move out of Baghdad," says Nibris Al-Attir, 44, a physician who oversees training at the transfusion center. The workers make anywhere from $100 to $300 a month, in a nation where the average is less then $50.
The center allows donations from healthy Iraqis between the ages of 18 and 65. Men can provide a pint once every three months, while women can give the same once every four months. Foreigners are not currently permitted to donate.
"Blood is a gift from God," says Mustafa Al-Okabi, a 22-year-old student at Baghdad University interviewed while donating blood at the center. "We must give it to anyone who needs it, whether they're Shiite or Sunni, Christian or Muslim."
As a human being, "you feel for the people and their needs," says 55-year-old photographer Yassin Yousef, who has contributed his B-positive blood a total of 66 times since the National Blood Transfusion Center was established in 1960, according to his donor card. "At this time, my country needs me to volunteer more than ever."
Donated blood lasts 30 to 35 days, according to hematologists at the transfusion center. Blood components, such as plasma, can be stored frozen for up to a year, while blood platelets have a life of only three days.
Much of the supply here is maintained by mandatory donations from the family or friends of patients receiving a transfusion. The rules are simple: Receive a pint and someone must contribute a pint for you, regardless of type.
Nazar Razaq, 31, an unemployed carpenter, and Ali Haider, an 18-year-old neighbor, are each donating a pint for Razaq's infant daughter, Sagar, who is to undergo neck surgery at Baghdad's neurological hospital.
Khadem Obead, a 34-year-old blacksmith, is donating for his pregnant 25-year-old sister-in-law, Zaineb, who is preparing for a Caesarean delivery.
The three men concede they never have donated without taking blood away, but pledge to do so in the future.
Some Iraqis are hesitant to donate blood due to suspicions about the spread of infectious diseases, such as HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Physicians here say HIV entered Iraq in 1986 through tainted blood. Today, the transfusion center employs a more advanced and thorough screening process, and it takes at least 24 hours to manually group and test the blood before separating its components.
Saed Mahmoud, 43, a physician at the center, says about 10 percent of all blood donations are rejected due to infections and other deficiencies.
Workers at the blood bank must contend with an underground market that threatens to contaminate its supply.
According to a United Nations report last year, hundreds of poor and unemployed Iraqis were selling their untested blood for $15 to $25 per pint.
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Citation: James Palmer. "Unrelenting Violence Drains Iraq Blood Supply," Newhouse News Service, 08 April 2006.
Original URL: http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/palmer041106.html
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