|
Manto welcomes race-free tests
29/09/2005 14:24 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The SA national blood service's (SANBS) new race-free risk determination system will be implemented fully on Monday, its chief executive said on Thursday.
This follows an uproar last year and an order from the minister of health that race no longer be used as part of the system to determine if donated blood was safe for use.
"That will disappear totally," Prof Anthon Heyns told Sapa ahead of a press conference.
The service spent the last year selecting new tests and importing equipment necessary for the new system.
Health Minster Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is happy with the new race-free risk rating model, she said on Thursday.
"I am glad the SANBS has been able to implement the new risk model for blood donations that excludes race within timelines that we set," she told reporters in Johannesburg.
"I don't have to remind you what happened to our president's blood in this country... something unheard of all over the world. That was a difficult moment for all of us."
At a presidential visit to a blood donation site, President Thabo Mbeki's blood was not used because he asked that he not have to fill in the questionnaire. Newspaper reports subsequently exposed the service's previous policy of rating blood from races other than white as a higher risk.
The new systems involved selecting new tests and importing new equipment. It includes a reduction in the window period for HIV.
"I can tell you now that as a matter of policy anyone who comes to donate blood will be welcome at the blood service. In fact we will welcome this change demographically," said CEO Anthon Heyns.
He warned though that although the window period had been reduced, the risk was still not zero.
This emphasised the importance of donor honesty, leading a safe lifestyle, and that doctors should consider very carefully whether a blood product was necessary.
Race would still form part of the questionnaire given to potential donors, but this would only be as part of the service's aims of representing the demographic of the country in its donations, Heyns said.
- SAPA
|
News
