The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) appealed for blood on Monday ahead of the holiday season — but at the same time, another meeting was taking place with the Department of Health to clarify issues surrounding its racial profiling policies.
The confirmation that race forms one of many criteria the service uses to establish the safety of blood and the presence of diseases such as HIV/Aids led to an uproar and an urgent meeting with the Department of Health last week.
A statement issued by the department after the meeting said the methods used to determine risk will be reviewed and ”race will not be used to determine blood risk level”.
However, it was not immediately clear whether the service, a non-profit organisation that operates under a licence issued by the department, will stop using race when profiling the safety of blood.
”I don’t know,” said director of donor services Diane de Koning, adding that she has not received any instructions on the matter.
”Until we get instructions from the minister of health and until they tell us what measures to take that we can ensure that everyone receives the safest blood possible, we will continue using the current methods.”
She said that Monday’s meeting was called to clarify the department’s statement.
The profiling includes gender, geographical location, the history of donors and their racial groups. According to a statement from SANBS CEO Anthon Heyns, this is an internationally accepted method of ensuring blood safety.
The sample questionnaire on the service’s website includes questions about sexual activity and whether the donor has HIV/Aids or has been exposed to the virus in addition to other illnesses such as malaria.
A Sunday news report said that President Thabo Mbeki’s public blood donation has not been used because his doctor asked that he not complete the questionnaire.
Monday’s meeting started at 4pm and further information was not immediately available.
‘Please don’t stop donating’
Meanwhile, the service’s publicist, Mercia van der Westhuizen, appealed to the public to continue donating blood.
”People are getting emotional, but please don’t stop donating blood,” she said.
The SANBS currently only has 5,3 days’ supplies, instead of the ideal eight days, and it expects this to drop during the festive season with its corresponding increase in accidents.
It is too soon to tell whether there has been a drop in donations since the racial profiling policy became public, she said.
”I will update everybody as soon as I know what the outcome of that meeting is, but it is extra important to realise that patients in hospital need blood … and we need to start building stocks to cope with all the car accidents,” she said.
”Each and every member of the public who knows they are leading a safe lifestyle must come forward to give blood.”
According to a statement from the service’s medical director, Robert Crookes, when a blood donation is made, the red blood cells (approximately 40% of the blood donation) are separated from the blood plasma (approximately 60% of the blood donation).
The plasma portion of the blood donation undergoes a special process and blood derivatives such as albumin, gamma globulin and factor VIII are prepared.
These blood derivatives are not able to transmit viruses such as HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C because they are able to be ”virus inactivated”.
Blood from donors in a high-risk category are used to prepare these special blood derivatives. — Sapa