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Mbeki's donated blood destroyed as a health risk
Blood donated by President Thabo Mbeki after an urgent appeal in South Africa was destroyed because it was regarded as a health risk, it emerged yesterday. South Africa's National Blood Service incinerated Mr Mbeki's donation after the president failed to complete a compulsory questionnaire about his personal health.Mr Mbeki's aides said the president never filled in application forms and had asked for a special dispensation. But Ravi Reddy, the National Blood Service's technical director, told the Sunday Independent newspaper that the president's donation had simply been destroyed. "We had to take a decision whether to abort bleeding the president, which would have been a disaster from a publicity point of view, or whether to draw blood and then dispose of it," he said. But the Sunday Independent said there might have been a further reason for the disposal of Mr Mbeki's blood after he arrived at a clinic in Durban in December 2001. The National Blood Service incinerated many donations from black South Africans because they were considered a high Aids risk, although it had now dropped race from its risk assessments. Posted by: Bulldog 2004-12-06 |
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