Covid-19: Lakhs being offered for plasma donations

HYDERABAD: With plasma donations not being regulated, those who have recovered from Covid-19 say they are getting offers ranging from Rs 60,000 to Rs 3 lakh for a single donation.

Warangal lawyer Akhil Ennamsetty, who has been trying to match patients and donors in the city, said, “You can get 400ml of plasma for up to Rs 3 lakh. With the official system being limited, donor-patient contact is moving off the grid.”


Ennamsetty, a Covid-19 survivor, was the first person in Telangana to donate plasma. He has been requesting the state government for an official database of recovered patients so that the system can be streamlined. “Desperate families are willing to pay any price. This is a dangerous situation because it robs the poor of an equal chance at finding eligible donors.”

Sources add that NRIs were pushing up costs as they can afford to pay up. In one case, the kin of a senior citizen even offered a chartered flight to bring a donor from Delhi. This informal market seems to be booming despite paid donations of blood and blood components being banned through a Supreme Court order of 1996.

With families of patients unable to access record of donors, people are being forced to fend for themselves and are getting duped. Prerana Appineni, who flew back from the US on a repatriation flight after her father fell ill, said the family agreed to a request to meet travel costs of a potential donor only to be cheated.