[What you are about to read ties back to the “Racist Blood furore” here in South Africa some months ago, which could have some rather staggering consequences for this country. I think the information herein is very important because you will see, we could be in for a massive blood crisis here in South Africa.

For a long time now, I have reported on the AIDS situation in Africa by forwarding details of various reports and studies. During various discussions between myself and regular South African visitors to my website, I raised the issue of how much of South Africa’s blood supply is donated by White people.

I asked this question because until March this year, I had been a regular blood donor. I donated regularly every 2 months for the last 16 years. My sister has donated for even longer, and one friend of mine, has donated over 200 pints of blood so far! In our discussions, I mentioned that whenever I donate blood, I hardly ever see non-white South Africans donating blood.

Here in South Africa, one is not paid for donating blood. If you donate, you do so for free. Yet, there is a core, of people who do so merely out of their own accord because they want to help someone else. I was one of them. When I questioned my friends and family who were donors, most of them also said they had hardly ever seen non-White people actually donating blood.

We know non-Whites do donate blood because sometimes the Blood service go to various businesses and ask the employees to donate blood. During one of my donations, I asked one of the nursing sisters about non-White donations, because HIV is raging through the Black population (though, officially, nobody wants to admit that this is mainly a problem among Black people). The nursing sister told me of one occasion when they went to a factory where they bled 120 Blacks. But after putting the blood through laboratory tests, they discarded 90 out of the 120 pints because either the people were HIV(43)+ or because there were other problems with the blood.

Later, on my website, other South Africans joined in this interesting discussion about how much of the blood donated in South Africa comes from Whites, since, obviously, the people who need it, and benefit from it the most, must surely be mostly non-White.

One of my regular visitors, who has often contributed to my site, Tony, said that his own experiences in this regard, led him to believe that probably about 75% of the blood in our blood banks comes from White people. I also felt that the percentage must be high – but I could not venture a guess as to what it might be.

Then a series of events occurred which set me on an interesting path.

Some months back, a non-White nursing sister in the Blood transfusion service, “discovered” that blood was “racially typed”. She found out that blood from White people was automatically regarded as safer than blood from Blacks. She thought this was extremely racist, and so she kicked up a fuss about it which then reached the Minister of Health. The Minister of Health, like all our Government Officials, was delighted to find something they could hold up and use as an excuse to cry out: “racist!”
And so the “racial blood furore” was set in motion.

The Minister of Health decided that “Blood Apartheid” was not to be tolerated and would be swept away forthwith. So she had meetings with the Blood Transfusion service where she told them in no uncertain terms, that this racist behaviour will cease at the soonest. She told them they would have to think up another way of doing things.

So they went away to devise a new model with which they would work which did not classify one’s blood as being safer because of your race. They would have to invent a new set of questions to try to determine how safe your blood might be.

Now let me stop for a second and explain the real logic here. Scientists, Doctors and various specialists have been studying HIV for 20 years now. AIDS has been a big problem in South Africa for more than 20 years. People have done studies in all different ways, and have analysed the results. It is a simple fact, that AIDS is rampant in South Africa among Black people. AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease, and these people have a sexual life style, which leads to them being more susceptible to AIDS than anyone else.

It has been mentioned many times, that there must be a different level of HIV infection among different racial groups. At times, these figures have even slipped out into the Mass Media, whereupon, the Govt immediately steps in and starts manipulating the figures and then ends up “concluding” that all racial groups have a more or less equal rate of infection. Clearly, if HIV is acknowledged as being mainly a “Black problem” then this leads to various problems for our Government. So they try, whenever they can, to muddy the waters and to confuse people about the real facts. Hoever, regardless of how they may edit, or choose to fudge the figures, I am quite sure, that scientists and doctors know the real facts.

Even though our President is the Number 1 Aids denialist on the planet, the medical and scientific fraternity in South Africa generally ignore (and are shocked by) his pronouncements about AIDS in international forums because what he is saying is foolish and contrary to science.

The Blood service on the other hand, takes the whole issue of AIDS transmission by transfusion very seriously and they are doing all they can to prevent all people, of all races from getting AIDS through blood transfusions.

I am quite certain that the model on which they based their “classification” (i.e. that blood from Whites is safer) was done on a very sound, statistical basis.

This does not mean that they just ignore blood donated by Blacks or that blood from Whites is regarded as safe – without further testing. They have stated that they do take the donated blood and run it through computerised tests. But even the most sophisticated tests can fail, especially during the 6-month window period. And this is where the racial classification comes into its own, because they are using the laws of probability to still decide which blood, which passed the tests, is more likely to be HIV(43)+. They are merely trying to minimise the chance of anyone getting AIDS through a Blood transfusion.

So in steps our Minister of Health who, on emotional grounds, now wants to change the system. This is also hypocritical if I may say so, because this same Government which is quick to call the Blood service “racist”, also requires that children be registered by race when they go to school. They defend it by saying they need to know the racial groupings so that they can decide if the money for education is being spent correctly.

With regard to the Blood problem, they jump up and down and scream “racist” even though the situation is a matter of life and death. They don’t seem to also realise, or they are probably too arrogant to admit, that White people might actually be saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of Black people.

In March 2005, I went to donate blood once more. But the staff had changed at the centre where I donate blood. There was an Indian nursing sister who then treated me with the utmost disrepect. She started questioning me in a way I have never been questioned before. She asked the most intrusive questions about my sex life. She said to me: “If you refuse to answer these questions, then you will not be allowed to donate blood”. I found her rude and insensitive. So after answering several highly personal and intrusive questions, I slammed my fists down on the table and said, “You have just lost yourself a donor” and I walked out.

I wondered why she was asking these strange questions. I wondered if it was due to the racial blood furore and whether these were the new procedures. I decided I wasn’t going to donate any more blood if I was treated like this because nobody was paying me for it, and I was driving out of my way to go and do this in my own time.

Later a friend suggested I actually report the Indian woman. So I did. I told the Blood service why I had stopped donating. Various people contacted me, and we discussed this. And it was during these conversations that I decided to ask these high-ranking officials in the Blood service some questions of my own, and you will see the shocking things I was told (off the record of course).

I discovered that I was partly right. Although the new “non-racial profiling” was not in place, these intrusive questions were part of a new drive to combat HIV.

I was told that the big problem they have is the 6-month window period during which HIV is undetectable. I was told that new systems were going to be put in place which would help to reduce this a little bit. But they were very concerned about people changing sex partners and then becoming HIV(43)+.

I was told that this was the real purpose behind these intrusive sexual questions. I was told, these questions would become even more intrusive in the near future.

I mentioned to them, that I know an old man and woman, who donate blood, who said that when they were asked these sexual questions, that they decided they weren’t going to put up with that, and they stopped donating blood too. I told them, I wondered how many donors they were going to lose due to their new methods.

They asked me to please, not stop donating blood because they were already experiencing one of their worst crises ever.

Here is what I learned:-
o They bleed approximately 1% of South Africa’s population of 44 million
people.
o The average, regular donor, donates 2.5 times per annum.
o The shortage of blood types O & B is critical and becoming worse.
o They are concerned about the window period when AIDS cannot be detected
and they are thinking of even holding back on blood from new donors and
will keep that blood until the person has donated 3 times (which means
the window period is over), before releasing all the blood for that
person.
o They are thinking, as per above, of blocking donations by people who
have recently changed sex partners. They will then hold the blood back
for 3 donations, to get through that window period.
o I was told that they are experiencing a skills problem with nursing
sisters resigning.
o I was told that Whites and Indians have the safest blood (i.e. lowest
HIV infection rates).

I was told that many HIV studies had been done, and interesting things had been discovered. For example:-
o HIV is higher among people in certain occupations. Very surprisingly,
Nurses were among those with higher rates of infection (even though one
would have thought they would know better!)
o It was also discovered that HIV goes up among Whites who have been
retrenched!
o I learned that Professor Heyns had done a study which showed that HIV
was higher in Pretoria than in Johannesburg (which will surprise most
South Africans!
o I learned that HIV is highest in the 20-35 age group.

The most interesting facts I managed to get out of them, were these:-
o The HIV infection rate among their regular White donors was only:
0.07% – but they did note, that even among this group, the rate was
increasing. I was told that in one instance an 82-year-old White man
was discovered to have recently become HIV(43)+.
o I asked what percentage of the blood was donated by Whites, and I was
told it was: 80-85%. Now this is amazing, but not surprising. I say
this because at the last census, Whites made up just under 10% of the
population. There are 4.2 million of us in a country of 44 million
people. But, this small group, supplies most of the blood.
o I was told, that in the Blood Service there is a lot of unhappiness at
the orders given to them by the Minister of Health because they are
absolutely convinced that the new “non-racial” rules will result in
much higher levels of HIV transmission occuring by way of Blood
transfusions!
o I was told that the Minister of Health has ordered that this new system
be in place by October 2005.
o I was told that they predict (off-the-record of course!) that the rate
of HIV transmission via blood transfusion will definitely increase.
They are also worried about the blood situation as it stands and they
feel that the blood crisis will become much worse.

Blacks are not keen on donating blood – for a number of reasons. Firstly, they want to be paid for it – which does not happen! Secondly, they sometimes cite various “beliefs” and other reasons why they don’t donate blood.

I was told that if I was concerned about the possibility of getting HIV from a blood transfusion, that I could pay approximately R500-R700 per pint, to have what they call “Directed Donations”. This is when you donate blood either for yourself or for a family member. This is only done, for example, when you go to have a major operation and you think you might need blood. But they did not encourage these directed donations because it has happened that family members have donated blood and then it turned out the person who donated it was actually HIV(43)+!

IMPORTANT NOTE: None of these people I spoke to in the Blood service, had any idea why I was asking these questions. I merely took the opportunity of satisfying my own curiosity when I talked to them, since they were quite high ranking in the organisation. They were merely trying to convince me to continue donating blood and I used it as an opportunity to quiz them as much as I could. I then dashed away and wrote down hurried notes shortly afterwards!

So I’m reporting this merely for those who know me and who trust me. But I am not out to prove anything to anyone else. People can doubt this information if they want. I’m not going to claim that it is “official”. It was the result of direct, one-on-one discussions.

I am sure our Government and Health Ministry will deny all of this out of hand. But I don’t care what they have to say about this. All I’m trying to get across to you, is that as a result of this “racial blood furore” they might end up losing a lot of White donors, and the already critical blood shortage will become an even worse crisis. Combine that with AIDS which seems to be increasing all the time, and I think we have the makings of an extremely serious situation.

For those who are interested in a more “official” report, I suggest they go to my website and look at a report written by Dr Jan Du Plessis. It is called “South Africa: Beyond Democracy” and it lays down his detailed analysis of how AIDS will collapse South Africa in the coming decades and lead to a crisis the likes of which this country has never known. His is a geostrategic analyst by profession, and he regularly produces reports for Business people.

The bottom line is: Keep watching AIDS in South Africa, and let’s wait and see if there is an increase in the transmission of the disease by way of Blood Transfusions as a result of the emotional meddling by our Minister of Health – who must surely rank as the Number 2 AIDS denialist in the world, after our President Mbeki!

As for me, I am not going to donate blood any more because of the rude way I was treated and because it appears as if their intrusive questioning will only get worse. As I said to one of the officials: “If you want blood, go and get it in Soweto!” Jan]