The South African National Blood Service is to initiate discussions with interested parties to resolve the challenges posed by its policy of excluding gay male donors, the health department said on Tuesday.
The decision came after a meeting between the health department and the SANBS in Johannesburg on Tuesday morning.
”The SANBS agreed to initiate discussions at the request of the department to resolve issues around the self-exclusion questionnaire that relates to men who had sex with men,” department spokesperson Sibani Mngadi said in a statement.
”There is a need to ensure a safe blood supply and patients have a right to access safe blood.”
The meeting comes after the SANBS received a copy of a media statement on Friday bearing the letterhead of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance’s (GLA) — once a registered political party — claiming that eight of its board members had donated blood while not disclosing their gay lifestyle.
On Monday the GLA claimed it had recruited more than 100 gay men to donate blood to the SA National Blood Services without disclosing their sexual activities.
However, SANBS CEO Anthon Heyns told South African Press Association the organisation was not able to find any record of the people whom the GLA claimed had donated blood.
By Tuesday the claims could still not be confirmed.
”They [SANBS] have gone through everything [donor records] and they cannot find it,” spokesperson Ianthe Exall said of the claims of en-masse donations.
”We have checked the actual names of people who claim to have donated and have not seen an increase in our clinics — there has been nothing different.”
Mngadi said the department condemned any action that encouraged the donation of blood that may pose a risk to the recipient or the withholding of information that may be useful in determining the safety of a blood donation. – Sapa