Tue 23 Sep 2014 In: International News View at Wayback View at NDHA
A UCLA study says allowing gay and bisexual men to donate blood in the US could help save a massive number of lives. The US has a blanket ban on blood donations by any man who has had sex with another man since 1977, a law which has been in place since 1983 when it was discovered how HIV was transmitted. Researchers at the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law at the University of California say if this ban was lifted completely an additional 360,600 men would likely donate 615,300 additional pints of blood each year. Read the report here If it was dropped to twelve months, the study says 185,800 additional men are likely to donate 317,000 additional pints of blood each year – while a five year stand down period would mean 172,000 more men would make a combined 293,400 blood donations. “The American Red Cross suggests that each blood donation has the potential to be used in life-saving procedures on three individuals. Our estimates suggest that lifting the blood donation ban among MSM could be used to help save the lives of more than 1.8 million people,” says study author Ayako Miyashita. However American federal authorities say they won’t lift the ban until they believe "scientific evidence can show that won't increase the risk of infection for patients receiving blood transfusions". The US is out of step with many western nations, including New Zealand, where from next year, men who have not had anal or oral sex with another man for more than a year will be able to donate blood. That’s a reduction from a five year stand-down period. The change was based on the fact advances in donation testing and handling mean errors have now been virtually eliminated from the system, and that the biggest risk of HIV entering the blood supply is during the very early ‘window period’ when it can’t yet be reliably detected. The review group which advised the change says the 12 month stand-down balances maintaining the safety of the blood supply, with interfering as little as reasonably possible with the rights and freedoms of potential donors. Australia has had a twelve month stand-down for the past ten years, with no evidence of HIV transmission. The UK also allows gay and bisexual men to donate blood if they have not had a sexual partner in 12 months. In Canada, the stand-down is five years.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 23rd September 2014 - 1:32pm