To Ghana’s legions of jobless young men, Eric Bimpong has a money-making proposition: sell your blood.Bimpong spends his days outside schools, bars and on the streets of poor neighbourhoods in Accra, scouring for teenagers and 20-somethings to give blood outside the capital’s largest hospital.
Commercial blood donors fill a void in a country where blood is often in short supply and cultural and religious beliefs keep some from donating.When a patient needs blood and the blood banks are empty and family and friends unavailable, the paid donors step in for a price.‘In this country, when people go to the hospital, they don’t want their relatives to know,’ to hide certain illnesses, Bimpong said. ‘So they come to us.’
While their donations save the lives of patients, public health officials worry that the donors spread diseases like HIV to those who receive their blood.‘It’s abnormal. We don’t really encourage this kind of donation,’ said Stephen Addai, a spokesman for Ghana’s National Blood Service (NBS).