AS WITH "snake head", a special new word - "blood head" - has appeared in the Chinese vocabulary over recent years, referring to a person who profits from organizing people to sell their blood.

Since Shanghai is a city whose medical system has long received patients from other provinces, due to its comparatively sophisticated medical facilities, it has always seen a shortage of blood supply.

The problem caused by this lack of blood has had to be tackled forcefully.

Every district and county in the city was given the task of collect a certain amount of blood annually.

The lower-level governments have to fulfill their quota by requiring factories and companies in their jurisdictions to ask their staff to participate in blood donation.

"Usually about 10 per cent of the staff in any company will go for blood donations every year," said Lu Jinong, an official with the Shanghai Blood Centre.

However, the widespread reluctance to donate blood has made some companies look to outside people to donate, giving them money as bonus. A group of people who had a good nose for the new trade contacted these companies and started to organize laid-off locals and out-of-town labourers for "blood money."

The companies promised to give blood heads about 1,000 yuan (US$120) for 200 millilitres of blood, while the blood heads passed on about 500 yuan (US$60) to the donors.

After 1998, when the city removed the old policy of giving every blood donor 80 yuan (US$9.70) for 200 millilitres of blood, voluntary blood donation was advocated around the country. Yet those companies who were in a comparatively healthy financial situation started to encourage staff to donate, using monetary lures.

Dangerous loopholes

According to the relevant regulations, those employees selected to give blood should have a physical examination one week before the donation to ensure the quality of the blood.

On the day of donation, the donors are required to show their ID cards and work certificates to doctors.

However, in a city where forged documents are available to anyone dialing a number on a business card handed out on the street, fake ID cards were not a problem.

Sometimes, employees would go to take a physical examination and if they passed, replacement donors would give blood as if they were safe.

"It was very dangerous and threatened blood quality, because the fake staff skipped the physical exam and hid their disease histories on the application forms," Lu said.

Employed donors

According to the Xinhua News Agency, 11 working units which employed blood heads were raided and five blood heads arrested last year in Shanghai.

The donors who had been employed were mainly impoverished laid-off workers and labourers from other provinces. More recently, college students have also become prey for blood heads.

According to people.com.cn, blood heads distributed many flyers on campuses to attract student donors, leaving their pager number on the leaflets.

Blood heads thought college students had better quality blood, looked more like company staff and were seldom suspected by doctors.

The blood heads usually had connections with a group of people who were willing to donate blood for money, not knowing that a large part of the fee would be kept by their "brokers." Blood heads have also begun to seek donors through the Internet.

In May this year, the Police Bureau in Yangpu District arrested six blood heads who had posted messages on the Web asking for young people to sell 400 millilitres of blood for 800 yuan (US$96.6). After deducting this sum, the blood heads stood to make 1,400 yuan (US$169) profit on every 400 millilitres collected.

"Most of the donors were students who needed money," said Yang Jiong, an official with the police bureau.

The Chinese Blood Donation Law, enacted in 1998, says a donor must wait six months between donations. However, blood heads' "staff" donated frequently, sometimes several times within one month. Some of the donors may not have realized such behaviour was illegal.

Asked whether he was willing to donate 200 millilitres of blood for 600 yuan (US$72), an out-of-town worker in town said he would certainly accept the deal, since this was quite a large sum of money to him.

Tougher measures

In order to kill the blood head phenomenon, the municipal government has installed ID-examination machines at every blood-collection station to screen out fake ID cards and donors.

"However, this may not be a very effective approach, because even counterfeit currency can sometimes fool money-examination machines in banks, with cards it is much easier," said Shen Kaiqian, a doctor at a blood-collection station in Pudong.

Doctors would confiscate suspicious cards whenever they encounter them, as well as being required to stay on the alert for anyone with needle-marks on their arms.