July 7, 2007 - Citizen.co.za
Many people wonder what really happens to donated blood.
The type of questions that spring to mind are: is the recipient getting safe blood that has been thoroughly screened for deadly diseases such as the HIV virus; are black people being excluded from giving blood; and are gays and lesbians discriminated against when it comes to their eligibility to donate blood?
In an exclusive and unrestricted interview with the SA National Blood Service (SANBS) at its head office in Gauteng, The Citizen got the answers and had unfettered access to SANBS laboratories.
Communications manager Justice Mohale said blood from all races was welcome.
On the gay issue he said: “It is not a blanket ban. We accept blood from gays and lesbians on condition they have not been involved in sexual activities, including oral or anal, for the past six months.”
The donated blood, irrespective of the source, is subjected to what medical technologist Marion Vermeulen called “the most technologically-advanced laboratory in the world."
Vermeulen is the donation testing manager.
Her unit is tasked with ensuring all blood – which has already been categorised into red cells, plasma (the straw-coloured part of blood) and platelets (disc-shaped very small part of a cell in the blood that clots blood after a cut or wound) – is carefully checked for diseases such as syphilis or the HIV virus.
The testing has been made more “rigorous” and accurate by the introduction of the “highly-sensitive” nucleic acid (either of two acids DNA or RNA) amplification technology.
DNA contains the genetic information of an individual whereas RNA is a chemical present in all living cells, so the amplification procedure shortens the window period (for possible present diseases) of the blood sample.
If the sample is positive for an infection, more tests are conducted to determine the exact disease, and the blood is rejected for donation.
“The patient’s right to receive safe blood outweighs that of a donor to give blood,” SANBS communications officer Nicolette Duda said.
Upon discovering an infection in the blood sample, SANBS contacts the donor to advise them to visit their doctor for an explanation as to why their blood was deemed unacceptable for donation.
In the same donation testing unit, virology tests are conducted to detect, inter alia, HIV virus and hepatitis. The samples are then grouped according to their types – A or B or AB or O.
All donations are assigned a unique number which is logged onto the computer system to enable effective monitoring. SANBS has a shortage of donors, a situation made worse by the fact that to produce one small bag of platelets, blood donations from five people are needed.