Covid black market flourishes in Pakistan; hospitals turn blood plasma-hawking dens

As the Coronavirus crisis continues to grip Pakistan with hospitals overflowing and positive cases multiplying at a chaotic rate, a dangerous black market of blood plasma has emerged in the country.

At the time when Pakistan’s healthcare system is on the ‘brink of collapse’, the blood plasma of recovered coronavirus patients is being sold for more than 3000 euros to those who are desperately looking for a cure. Convalescent plasma is being trialled around the world as a possible treatment for the COVID-19. It contains antibodies generated by the immune systems of people who have recovered from the fatal disease.

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Doctors in government hospitals in capital Islamabad said they had witnessed transactions between patients and mediators. Usually a patient’s family approaches someone who has recovered from Coronavirus, asking them to donate blood plasma. When a certain amount is agreed upon as payment, (usually between 200,000 and 800,000 Pakistani rupees), they go to a private lab and extract the plasma, which is then ‘donated’ to the suffering patient.

One of the doctors told a UK paper that he knew a family of five who tested positive for Covid-19 and spent 3.5 million rupees on blood plasma in the black market, believing it to be a miracle cure. The Pak investigation agency is aware of the unregulated sales of blood plasma but said it is up to the police to investigate such cases.

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Pak reels under COVID-19 crisis

The hospitals in Islamabad have reportedly run out of essential drugs, including as dexamethasone, as well oxygen cylinders, as they were stolen and are being sold for 25 times the market price in the black market.

Pakistan now has one of the fastest infection rates in the world, with 185,000 confirmed cases and over 5,000 new cases reported each day. But authorities have warned that the number of cases could spiral to more than a million by the end of next month.

Pakistan's healthcare system is severely under-prepared for a major increase in the scale of the outbreak. In a country of 220 million people, Pakistan has fewer than 3,000 acute care beds.

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