CBC News has learned two people — including a 22-year-old international student — died after giving plasma at Winnipeg collection centres that pay people for their donations.
The deaths are under review by Health Canada, which confirmed it received two reports of fatal adverse reactions in plasma donors — one in October of last year and another on Jan. 30, 2026.
The federal regulator says it is still assessing these reports and has not made a link between the plasma collection and deaths.
Rodiyat Alabede died on Oct. 25 after friends say the 22-year-old went to an appointment at the Grifols Plasma Donation Centre on Taylor Avenue to give plasma.
The public system gets to pay for treating these patients seemingly made sick by a for-profit business and the investigation of said business. I’m so glad we let for-profit companies back into blood collection after kicking them out after the tainted blood scandal of the 1980s in which 1000s were exposed to HIV or Hep C /s
There are some great documentaries about these predatory companies. Monetary compensation for blood/organ donation must be banned, its an obvious disaster unless we implement UBI.
On the blood products recipient end, we want to ensure safety and ethics in the products people need to live.
Unfortunately, donations are not adequate such that Canadian Blood Services buys blood products to make up the difference.
A significant portion of the product purchased and imported into Canada from the United States comes from incarcerated populations.
Paying Canadians for plasma donations is an arguably lesser harm than importing plasma and fractionated blood products from incarcerated persons in the United States.
A healthy adult should be able to make plasma donations very frequently. This raises questions about what was happening in that donation centre’s screening and drawing procedures.
In fact, there is a long history, when the blood supply was less reliable, where parents of children with bleeding disorders often donated plasma biweekly in order to make sure their children had a safe and timely supply of essential coagulation factors.
Ensuring that the donations are safe both for the person donating and the recipients is nonnegotiable. It’s also however essential that we have the blood products available for those who need them and not condemn those with inherited bleeding disorders to disability due to insufficient availability of fractionated products.
Where I live it’s illegal to pay for stuff like that. Well, you do get a sandwich and juice!
