South African Press Association - December 7, 2004

She was commenting on a Sunday news report claiming the president's public blood donation had not been used because his doctor asked that he not complete the questionnaire.

Mbeki's medical records were apparently leaked to the newspaper by a senior official of the SANBS, said health department spokesperson Sibani Mngadi in a statement.

The concern about Mbeki's privacy came out of a meeting between the health minister and the SANBS on Monday evening to discuss the use of race in rating the risk of blood donations.

"As health professionals, we have ethical parameters within which we have to operate. Fundamental to this is the need to respect the rights and dignity of our clients.

"The SANBS should apologise to the president for this unethical conduct," said Tshabalala-Msimang.

The minister said it was possible to ensure the safety of blood without discriminating against blood donors on the basis of race.

"The current risk-rating model has to be reviewed as a matter of urgency.

"Other scientific determinants that determines risk more accurately should be identified and they should be not based on race," said Tshabalala-Msimang.

The SANBS would hold a board meeting on Tuesday to discuss the issue, Mngadi said.

The confirmation that race formed one of many criteria the service used to establish the safety of blood and the presence of diseases like HIV/Aids led to an uproar and an urgent meeting with the Health Department last week.

A statement issued by the department after the meeting said that the methods used to determine risk would 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 which operates under a licence issued by the department, would stop using race when profiling the safety of blood.

"I don't know," said director of donor services Diane de Koning, adding that she had 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 health department's statement.

Blood profiling included gender, geographical location, the history of the donor and their racial group. According to a statement from SANBS CEO Anthon Heyns, this was an internationally accepted method of ensuring blood safety.

Blood supplies dwindle

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.

They currently only had 5,3 days' supplies, instead of their ideal eight days and they expected this to drop during the festive season with its corresponding increase in accidents.

It was too soon to tell whether there had been a drop in donations since the racial profiling policy became public, she said.

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