Paying for pints: Blood boom
血的代价:血液繁荣
An unusual sort of business will soon open in Shelby, North Carolina. But it will not sell anything itself. Instead, willing donors, paid around $40 a pop, will sit connected to an apheresis machine.
一种不寻常的生意即将在北卡罗来纳州的谢尔比开业。但是这家公司本身不会出售任何东西。相反,自愿献血者(每次大约得到40美元报酬)将坐在血浆分离机旁,血管与机器相连。
Over the course of an hour, the machine will extract their blood, siphon out plasma and recirculate the remaining fluid.
在一个小时的过程中,这台机器会抽取他们的血液,吸出血浆,并将剩余的液体重新输回献血者体内。
The plasma will then be made into medicines, such as clotting factors for haemophiliacs and intravenous immunoglobulins for those suffering from autoimmune diseases.
然后血浆将被制成药物,如用于血友病患者的凝血因子和用于自身免疫性疾病患者的静脉注射免疫球蛋白。
Shelby's latest arrival will be one of 400 or so plasma-collection centres to have opened in America since the start of 2020, as pharmaceutical firms respond to growing demand.
谢尔比最新开设的血浆采集中心将是自2020年初以来在美国开设的大约400家血浆采集中心之一,因为制药公司正在响应不断增长的需求。
All told, America now supplies 70% or so of the plasma used to make medicine. America's booming blood trade is not an unmitigated success story, however, since it reflects problems elsewhere.
总体来说,美国现在供应了70%左右的用于制造药品的血浆。然而,美国繁荣的血液贸易并不是纯粹的成功,因为它反映了其他地方的问题。
The trade is mostly driven by two factors. The first is greater demand for plasma products: doctors have found ever more uses for the medicines, especially intravenous immunoglobulin.
血液贸易主要由两个因素驱动。第一个因素是对血浆制品的需求增加:医生发现了越来越多的对这些药物的用途,尤其是静脉注射免疫球蛋白。
The second reason is restrictions on plasma collection in other countries, owing to a combination of misplaced worries about safety and concerns about the morality of rewarding people for their bodily fluids.
第二个因素是其他国家对血浆采集的限制,这是由于人们有一些不必要的对安全问题的担忧,以及人们对因捐赠血液而获得报酬的道德问题也存在忧虑。
In June the European Parliament approved new regulations that allow compensation to be offered for donations, but ban it from being mentioned in advertising and cap payments to an amount proportionate to the value of time spent donating.
今年6月,欧洲议会批准了新法规,允许为血浆捐赠提供报酬,但禁止在献血广告中提及报酬,并将报酬金额限制在与献血所花的时间价值成比例的数额内。
Such qualms do not stop countries from importing American blood. Britain and Canada are almost entirely dependent on the country's plasma; Europe brings in lots, too.
这些疑虑并没有阻止各国进口美国血液。英国和加拿大几乎完全依赖美国的血浆;欧洲也进口了不少。
Some countries are even more flagrant in their double standards. France lobbied against the European Union's recent regulatory changes, arguing that they risked making the human body a commodity, as is "already a reality in the United States".
一些国家的双标行为甚至更加明目张胆。法国进行游说,反对欧盟最近的监管改革,认为这可能会使人体成为一种商品,而"人体成为商品已经在美国变成了现实"。
At the same time, the French government is the sole shareholder in a company that owns six plasma centres in America, which pay donors, with the fluid collected available for use in France.
与此同时,法国政府又是一家在美国拥有六个血浆中心的公司的唯一股东,这些中心向捐赠者付费,收集的血液可在法国使用。
Yet hypocrisy is far from the worst problem in the blood trade. According to Albert Farrugia of the University of Western Australia and colleagues, consumption of plasma medicine would be greater still if more was available.
然而,伪善远非血液贸易中最严重的问题。根据西澳大学的阿尔伯特·法鲁贾及其同事,如果有更多的血浆可供使用,那么对血浆药品的消费量将会更大。
They find that outside America, Australia and Canada, use of immunoglobulin is lower than studies estimating demand suggest it ought to be, indicating that people who would benefit from treatment are missing out.
他们发现,在美国、澳大利亚和加拿大以外,免疫球蛋白的使用低于估计需求的研究所表明的应有水平,这说明一些本应从治疗中受益的人没有得到治疗。