The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) is a non-profit organisation that provides human blood for transfusion that operates in South Africa, with the exception of the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

, which has its own blood service. The head office of the SANBS is in

Constantia Kloof Constantia Kloof is a suburb of Roodepoort in Gauteng, South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stre ...

, Gauteng, near

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, but there are blood collection operations in eight of the nine provinces. Western Cape has a separate blood centre, the

Western Cape Blood Service The Western Cape Blood Service (WCBS) is a non-profit society providing blood services to the Western Cape province in South Africa. WCBS is a separate entity from the South African National Blood Service (SANBS). Hospitals and clinics in the Wes ...

. SANBS was founded in 2001 from a merger of seven blood centres, and was embroiled in controversy in 2004 over a policy of racial profiling for blood safety. The SANBS appointed Dr. Jonathan Louw as its CEO in January 2018. Dr Louw founded Healthwyse Consulting and prior to this, he was MD at the Abraaj Group (a Dubai-based private equity investment company). Louw was at JSE-Listed Adcock Ingram and Tiger brands from 2001 to 2014, serving in a variety of capacities from New Business Development, MD of Pharmaceuticals (2003 to 2006) and then Chief Executive at Adcock Ingram (2006 to 2014). He has an MB.ChB (1993) and an MBA (1999), both from the University of Cape Town. Dr Louw was succeeded by Ravi Reddy in January 2021.

Blood donation

SANBS collects blood from volunteer unpaid donors and processes that blood into components for transfusion. The donors are screened for health risks and tested for diseases on every donation. Not all parts of the donated blood are always used, such as with first time donors, to establish a history of negative test results in the donor before the blood is used in patients. The red blood cells from the first donation are discarded because they cannot be stored long enough to wait for a second donation and a second set of testing, but the blood plasma can be frozen and used. SANBS relies on donors that return consistently, as the history of testing makes it less likely to miss a positive result from a laboratory error or from a donation in the

window period In medicine, the window period for a test designed to detect a specific disease (particularly infectious disease) is the time between first infection and when the test can reliably detect that infection. In antibody-based testing, the window period ...

. Testing has included

nucleic acid test A nucleic acid test (NAT) is a technique used to detect a particular nucleic acid sequence and thus usually to detect and identify a particular species or subspecies of organism, often a virus or bacterium that acts as a pathogen in blood, tissu ...

ing (NAT) since 2005, which directly detects the virus instead of waiting for the body to develop an

antibody An antibody (Ab), also known as an immunoglobulin (Ig), is a large, Y-shaped protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The antibody recognizes a unique molecule of the ...

. This test shortens but does not eliminate the window period. SANBS performs NAT testing for each individual donor, instead of in pools. NAT testing is expensive, and blood banks in many countries, such as Canada, perform the testing on pooled donor samples. The individual testing is more sensitive to window period donations. The testing is performed at central laboratories in Johannesburg and

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

Whole blood Whole blood (WB) is human blood from a standard blood donation. It is used in the treatment of massive bleeding, in exchange transfusion, and when people donate blood to themselves. One unit of whole blood (~517 mls) brings up hemoglobin lev ...

is collected to make

packed red blood cells Packed red blood cells, also known as packed cells, are red blood cells that have been separated for blood transfusion. The packed cells are typically used in anemia that is either causing symptoms or when the hemoglobin is less than usually 70� ...

and

plasma Plasma or plasm may refer to: Science * Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter * Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral * Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics Biology * Blood pla ...

for transfusion. Plasma and

platelet Platelets, also called thrombocytes (from Greek θρόμβος, "clot" and κύτος, "cell"), are a component of blood whose function (along with the coagulation factors) is to react to bleeding from blood vessel injury by clumping, thereby ini ...

s for transfusion are also collected by automated

plateletpheresis Plateletpheresis (more accurately called thrombocytapheresis or thrombapheresis, though these names are rarely used) is the process of collecting thrombocytes, more commonly called platelets, a component of blood involved in blood clotting. The t ...

. Collections take place at fixed sites, but SANBS also collects blood on mobile blood drives at community locations such as shopping centres. The blood is then processed into components at seven processing locations throughout South Africa. During 2008, SANBS collected 718,962 donations of Whole Blood and 11,657 donations of apheresis platelets.

Other services

SANBS also provides blood-related laboratory services such as

paternity testing DNA paternity testing is the use of DNA profiles to determine whether an individual is the biological parent of another individual. Paternity testing can be especially important when the rights and duties of the father are in issue and a child ...

and the HLA typing of

bone marrow Bone marrow is a semi-solid tissue found within the spongy (also known as cancellous) portions of bones. In birds and mammals, bone marrow is the primary site of new blood cell production (or haematopoiesis). It is composed of hematopoietic ce ...

donors, though the actual bone marrow donations are handled by the Sunflower Fund, a separate organisation. The organisation also prepares an annual haemovigilance report on transfusion complications, conducts research, and provides clinical training.

History

The organisation was founded in 2001 from the merging of seven independent

blood banks A blood bank is a center where blood gathered as a result of blood donation is stored and preserved for later use in blood transfusion. The term "blood bank" typically refers to a department of a hospital usually within a Clinical Pathology laborat ...

Criticism

The organisation came under fire in 2004 when it was revealed that they used the race of a donor as a consideration in determining disease risk. SANBS stated that the profiling was necessary to reduce the risk of transmission of

human immunodeficiency virus The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause AIDS, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the ...

(HIV), citing

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

policy for not collecting blood from high risk groups. Health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang raised concerns that the policy was racist. SANBS changed the policy later that week. Dr. Loyiso Mpuntsha, a black woman who was once rejected as a blood donor, was the SANBS CEO until March 2015. Previously, the SANBS also excluded homosexual males who have had sex with another male within five years, as the SANBS saw them as high risk carriers of

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

. After an outcry, this ruling was changed in 2006 to allow homosexual men to donate, provided that they have been celibate for at least six months. This policy was amended in 2014 to allow all sexes and orientations to donate, provided that they have been either celibate or in monogamous relationships for the previous six months.

References

External links