SA blood service continues to reject gay donors

08 August 2007- Johannesburg, South Africa- The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) is still discriminating against gay blood donors. Speaking on the sidelines of a press conference in Johannesburg, SANBS CEO Loyiso Mpuntsha confirmed to SABC news that they are "positively discriminating" against homosexual males.

She says the policy is that blood is only accepted from homosexual men who have not had either anal or oral sex with other men for a period of six months.

Mpuntsha says they still haven't done any national research on whether or not homosexual men have a higher HIV/Aids rate than the rest of the population.

Racial categories dropped
The SANBS no longer racially categorises its blood donors. Mpuntsha says the new system - whereby blood is categorised on the regularity of a person's blood donation and not on the colour of a donor's skin - has been very effective.

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