Mbeki's 'black blood burnt'

2004-12-03 22:07

Pietermaritzburg - Blood donated by President Thabo Mbeki in public awareness drives for the blood transfusion service has routinely been incinerated because he is black.

The South African National Blood Service decided at an urgent meeting with the health department on Friday to scrap its policy of using race to determine the level of risk of HIV infection in donated blood.

This followed a public outcry after a case before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) revealed the racist policy.

Mbeki, together with other politicians such as former Health MEC Zweli Mkhize, has donated blood in the past to help promote the SANBS's drive for more blood donations as the demand for blood nationally is high and supply often falls short.

Because of his race, the SANBS will have destroyed his blood because he fell into what was deemed a high-risk category - along with all black and most coloured South Africans.

The portion of his blood that would have been saved for use is the plasma, which can be treated for viruses and thus any potential threat from HIV and hepatitis B and C is removed.

However, the SANBS did an about-face on Friday and decided to scrap its policy of racial profiling following a case taken to the CCMA by SANBS nurse Poppie Bereng. Based at their offices in Bloemfontein, she objected to racial profiling and insisted that a clause be inserted into her employment contract that she would not be involved in bleeding black people.

"My problem is that if the blood has been tested several times, even though it falls under that (high risk) category, just because (the donors) are high risk, they shouldn't destroy the blood," she told the Weekend Witness.

She was dismissed by the SANBS for her stand. She took her case to the CCMA and won. The SANBS was forced last week to reinstate her but is appealing the CCMA's decision.

On Friday, health department spokesperson Sibani Mngadi said race would no longer be used to determine blood risk level.

"The current risk-rating model needs to be reviewed as a matter of urgency and other scientific determinants should be identified and integrated into the model to determine risk more accurately," he said.

Smacked of racism

Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Thursday the profiling of donors smacked of racism.

SANBS said it used many criteria to determine the risk of blood donations. These included risky behaviour, sexual practices and a healthy lifestyle, Mngadi said. Race is one of the risk factors. It is included on the basis of statistical analysis and HIV prevalence.

Blood from black - and most coloured - South Africans was deemed too risky to use for blood transfusions and was destroyed by incineration, the SANBS told the Weekend Witness yesterday.

Donors not asked race

Yet exactly how the SANBS classifies people as black, coloured, Indian and white seems to be a murky area as it is the SANBS sisters who make this decision. Potential blood donors are not asked their race.

Instead, this decision is taken by the sister attending to the donor based on certain details such as the donor's name and the area in which they live, according to SANBS spokesperson Ianthe Exall. When asked if blood donated by people in high-risk categories was destroyed, Exall said "this is the situation we are faced with'', although the plasma could be used.

SANBS medical director Dr Robert Crookes said that the service's aim is to provide patients needing blood with the safest blood available.

Blood donors who were considered low risk for HIV infection were placed in categories one and two, whereas high risk donors fell into either category three or four, according to Exall.

Mbeki would probably fall into category three, which is high risk.

She said only a tiny proportion of donated blood units (450 millilitres of blood) are infected with HIV. However, the statistics for infection are far higher in certain groups than others.

For example, in category one, the group comprising white females who donate blood regularly (at least once a year) had an HIV infection rate of three in 113000 units donated. In contrast, in the high risk category four for the same period, the group comprising black females who donate regularly have an HIV infection rate of 90 in 7500 units of donated blood.

All black people categorised 'high-risk'

All black people are categorised in the high-risk categories three and four - which means their blood was not used except for the plasma. All coloured people in KwaZulu-Natal fell into the high-risk category three. Coloured people in the Eastern Province apparently fell into the lower risk category two as historically their infection rate is lower.

Testing for HIV costs the SANBS R5,98 per unit of blood that tests negative. Units testing positive are tested again and if they test positive a second time, are tested once more using the same test. If still testing positive, a more advanced test costing R83 is used to confirm the result.

This means that an HIV-positive unit of blood is tested four times at a cost of R100,94.

Every unit of blood donated is tested for HIV. However, the window period - during which the antibodies manufactured by the body in response to the infection cannot be detected - is currently three to six weeks from the date of infection depending on the person's immune system, said Exall.

- The Witness