http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4610196.stm

Oh for crying out loud, this is bloody stupid.

What is, exactly?

A threat, to scare the ignorant even more. :D

1) Requests for gays to "piss off" and not donate.
2) Gays "flooding" this agency with ponentially unsafe blood.

I don't see why gay blood would be more unsafe than the blood of "straight" people.

There are sound scientific reasons for expecting gays to have a higher incidence of AIDS, so why exactly is this "bloody stupid"?

Gay blood is screened, just as everyone elses. I KNOW that homosexuals have a higher AIDS infection rate, but in this case, why does it matter, the blood is being tested anyways.

Also, this is a NATIONAL organization, no? If its government run, and since SA has liberal policies in regards to homosexuals (and the fact that this organization didn't let blacks donate or something to that effect), isn't it hypocritical?

Alternatively, why does the homosexual community have to try and potentially infect others? Why can't it just respect the wishes of this organization?

Both sides are flawed, but I'm taking the side of the blood service in this, its THEIR right to choose what blood they accept, and if the gays can't recognize this, and want to disobey, then they run the risk of being even more unpopular, infecting others (which is disgusting), just to make a point.

As the article said there's about a 60 day window when HIV infected blood is undetectable, maybe a better ruling would be no sex within the last 60 days for ANY donor.

<font color=8fbc8f>The blood service can accept or deny. They also have questionaires they pass out, and hopefully people are truthful on them. But, the blood is still screened. It just appears that the whistle has been blown.

Many people today are pre-depoisting their own blood for future operations.

Sadly the local blood blank is short on O+ which has been coined the universal blood. I have O+, and would gladly donate. But..they don't want MY blood. It has traces of Anthrax, ISG, and three or four other governmental real world, real people, strains in it. Guess the general populace is not ready....Where's TL?</font>

It does seem (from the article) to be the choice of the SANB of whose blood to take. At least they're citing medical reasons for this discrimination (though according to the article, gays don't have the highest incidence of AIDS in South Africa). Last year it was revealed that they were throwing out blood of blacks who came and donated, citing the same reason, but they changed it.

Felix..what would these 3 or 4 other governmental, real world, real people strains be (if you don't mind)?