One Person’s View on Singapore’s Blood Donation Policy
By Sofia Ferreira Renovato Dos Santos
After 4 years, the school resumed the initiative for CIS students, teachers, and parents to participate in the blood donation campaign. As Singapore is experiencing a shortage of blood bags in its banks, such an initiative is vital to help the country’s men, women, children, elderly, and babies. However, as the volunteers showed up to perform this altruistic act of citizenship, many were quickly dismissed after their arrival as they were ineligible to donate blood in Singapore. An experience that should be pleasurable, knowing that you are helping to save lives, becomes a frustrating experience that leaves you wondering what could be wrong with you.
Which begs the question: who is eligible to donate blood in Singapore?
The filtering of eligible individuals by the Singaporean government is questionable, to say the least. Generalising its residents into labels by nationality is surely the last thing a city-state, where nearly half of the population is immigrants, should do.
A questionnaire provided by the Red Cross, but based on the HSA (Health Sciences Authority) that apparently aims to map the medical, travel, and lifestyle history of the candidate for donation, reveals an automatic ban from donating if the individual is from a certain continent. The risk of contracting viruses or even parasites that no longer represent high risks in the locations identified in the questionnaires seems to outweigh the benefit of collecting a blood bag from an apparently healthy individual. For example: I am Brazilian. I was stopped from donating due to the risk of Chagas disease. This was the same for another Brazilian The Print spoke to. Here is their account:
Blood donation has always been an act of citizenship that I have heard about since I was a child. Reaching the minimum age and weight to donate, I experienced two denials: one due to anaemia and the other due to having a piercing placed close to the donation. The third time all the prerequisites were met and after going through a long interview I was finally able to finalise my desire to contribute to the cause. There is nothing more natural than wanting to carry out the same act in the country to which I moved and whose authorities highlighted the low supply of bags, necessary for the daily cases in which the fluid is used. To my surprise, going through the form and the anaemia test, I was surprised by the refusal due to the risk of a disease whose contact I only had through science books. Even without having ever been to the northern region of my country and without ever having presented any symptoms related to Chagas disease, I was unable to contribute to improving blood donation rates in Singapore.
Parent at Canadian International School
Let’s explore this obscure disease a little further, looking at the facts. What exactly is the rate of contagion of Brazilians by Chagas disease, considering that this disease is concentrated in remote regions of Brazil? In Brazil in 2023, it was recorded that the continuous cases of Chagas disease registered are in the North region of the country, in mostly remote and rural cities, considerably away from the urban part of the State of Pará. Yet, the records since 2019 have never exceeded 500 cases, peaking in 2022 with 358 cases, 80% from the state of Pará. Considering the population of 2018,951,197 people in Brazil and the northern region being one of the least populated in the country, it is possible that Chagas disease is not an epidemic.
Or what about the UK? Again Singapore homes in on an obscure disease, in this case CJD, potentially missing out on gallons of healthy blood. In the middle of 2023, what is the risk of contamination of a British individual by this so-called ‘mad cow’ virus? I am not British, but was able to talk to someone who was:
I have been a regular blood donor in my native country (UK) for many years. 10 years ago, I started taking medication which meant that I was unable to donate. When I came off that medication 3 years ago, I looked into blood donation in Singapore. I was amazed that I am not allowed to give blood here because I lived in the UK from 1980 – 1996 during which there was Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. The other thing that surprised me was that the Red Cross claims this is for my own safety. I have absolutely no health issues connected to CJD and am fit and healthy (though I am aware that symptoms of CJD are often not evident until later life). There have been no confirmed deaths from CJD in the years 2017 to 2020 and passing on the disease through blood donation is very rare. The NHS has put procedures in place to reduce this risk even further
Teacher at Canadian International School
So, are any of the reasons given by the Singapore government reasonable? Ironically, we might be more at risk from something like Chagas from other sources. After all, in 2018 and 2023, Singapore was the country that imported the sixth-most açaí from Brazil. With the mutation of the Chagas disease, the micro-organism responsible for the contamination is found in contaminated açaí. There are dozens of stores dedicated only to this food scattered throughout the city. Therefore, it is proven that the current main means of spreading Chagas disease, so feared by the government, is through the acai fruit. However, there are no records of Singapore intervening in the import of the fruit. If the concern for the population is so severe, why is there no concern to cut the possible means of contamination, even if it means that it could harm Singapore’s economy?
Considering the evidence, considering the heartfelt testimonies, and considering that 40% of Singapore’s population are immigrants, surely Singapore’s parliament should check its priorities. Ponder: from the percentage of Brazilians, British and other nationalities who are ineligible, and estimate: wouldn’t importing disease tests be beneficial to saving more lives? Or screening the blood? Is the cost of importing tests and screening blood as expensive as the divisive nature of the current policy, where certain people cannot contribute in such a vital way to their adopted country?
Taking advantage of the campaign motto used by Singapore’s newest president, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, calling for “Respect for all”, I would hope that those currently considered ineligible can in the future at least be considered to donate, rather than summarily excluded.