Czech Republic offers free beer to blood donors
Prague Katka Krosnar
A new campaign in the Czech Republic is offering people two glasses of beer in exchange for their blood in an effort to recruit blood and bone marrow donors.
Anyone donating blood as part of the "beer for blood" initiative will receive two half litre glasses of beer in return.
"Many doctors have told me about the shortage of blood stocks in hospitals, so I wanted to encourage people to donate blood and also bone tissue," the initiative�s organiser, Jaroslav Novak, editor of a Czech beer magazine, said.
Mr Novak has teamed up with Prague�s Vojenska Hospital and the Czech bone marrow donor registry to run the campaign, which was launched by the local development minister, Jiri Paroubek, at a beer festival dedicated to the country�s patron saint, Wenceslas.
"We don�t see anything unusual about offering beer as an incentive to donors, and we hope that this campaign will help to boost blood stocks, which are not critical but low," said Dr Milos Bohonek, head physician at Vojenska Hospital�s haematology and blood transfusion department.
The Czechs are the world�s biggest consumers of beer, last year drinking 162 litres per person.
In a recent report the World Health Organization criticised the Czechs for not doing enough to tackle alcoholism and highlighted that beer was often cheaper than soft drinks.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Health, Vaclav Sebor, said it did not support the campaign. "The ministry supports safer blood donation without giving gifts in return," he said.
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