Blood Donation Part 3: Blood Tourism

While researching blood donations in Cambodia one of the strangest things I came upon was the amount of advertising advocating blood donations from tourists. Just a quick google search renders the following:

Jayavarman VII Hospital
Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) in Siem Reap
Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital

These are also recommended by both TripAdvisor and Lonely Planet. 

I have never given blood in Cambodia and now greatly regret it. I remember the last time I was there with my family my brother expressed interest but everyone decided that it was probably a risky decision. I now firmly believe that that trepidation was unwarranted, and is similar to the reason there is a shortage in the country in the first place. Not donating blood in Cambodia, because of fear of lack of sterilization, is much akin to the native aversion due to “lack of energy.” It does much more good than many other forms of volunteerism in the country. Donating blood goes directly to saving an individual's life. Many other tourist volunteer programs, such as visiting orphanages, are somewhat less substantial and can often do more harm than good (recent studies have shown that the turnover of volunteers at orphanages in developing countries is traumatic for the children).

The blood contribution of a single individual does little to fix the widespread problem but certainly has much more impact in Cambodia than it would have in a developed country.

Accounts I have found online of foreigners who donated blood are generally positive. Here are two samples from individual bloggers.

Sample 1:

"When I came to the gate I said I wanted to donate blood and I was walked to the blood bank. There was no one else there and after filling out a form I had a needle in my arm and they were draining blood. Maybe I looked pale or something but there were three of the nurses and doctors standing around asking me if I was feeling fine. But donating blood here was not a problem – I only had to donate 300 ml compared to the 500 ml that is donated in Norway. I guess it is because Cambodians have a smaller body than your average westerner and that is why they drain less blood here. Anyway, I got a Coke while I was donating blood and I even got a t-shirt."

Sample 2:

"In Cambodia donating blood is not very common, as there is a fear that you could get sick. One of the tuk tuk drivers told me it has something to do with the thought that the old and new blood mixing together will cause illness. First we would check the place out to make sure we were all comfortable with the set up. Two of the girls from Belgium actually draw blood back home so they knew what to look for, and I have donated enough times to also know what to look for.The hospital was not even close to anything I've seen in the US. There did not appear to be an official waiting room as there were a lot of people just waiting around outside the various buildings. We headed to the blood bank which was housed in it's own building. It was a bit small so we quickly filled up the place.There were 2 ladies working in the clinic that really only spoke Khmer, but we had one of the Khmer teachers with us to help with the translation. We asked to see the equipment that would be used, with the needles being our main concern. We checked everything out and felt comfortable with the set up, they seemed to have no problems with all our questions.We started with a questionnare which asked many of the same questions that are on the paperwork in the US. Somehow I ended up going first and so they checked my pulse, my blood pressure, and my iron levels (this is normally the point where I fail), and everything was at acceptable levels. Last thing they did was weigh me, which just looking at me it's clear I'm nowhere near being underweight, but they were just following procedures. Then they cleaned my arm, found a good vein and put in the clean disposable sterile needed. My blood is a little slow, but once I was done they put the bag (350ml) next to me so that I could have a photo taken (I'm sure not part of the standard procedure). They had me lay there for a bit and once I sat up they had a nice cold Coke waiting for me (they also had these for us as we filled out the paperwork). They could only do one person at a time so we sat around talking, drinking Cokes and eating the cookies I brought. I'm sure the ladies worked well past their normal time, but never indicated this was an issue. They even gave each of us a t-shirt, and started a blood donation card for the Cambodian blood blank."

If you are still feeling uncomfortable about donation safety. Here are two videos of how the process works for foreigners in Siem Reap.

Foreign donation has two positive effects and I highly encourage it. The first is that it is a reliable source supplying a very small portion of the needed blood. The donations are entirely altruistic and therefore will generally be screened effectively. The second is that sufficient reporting of international participation should both instill confidence and a sense of national guilt/obligation. This second benefit is by far more important and will hopefully lead to an overall increase in blood bank supply.