File Photo The Gay Men’s Sexual Health research group is underlining that maintaining a deferral period for blood donations “reflects the best scientific evidence currently available”. The 12 month stand down period for gay and bisexual men who want to give blood came into effect yesterday, after being approved by Medsafe. It means men who haven’t anal or oral sex with another man in a year can donate. The ban period was dropped from five years to 12 months at the recommendation of an independent team which carried out a review for the New Zealand Blood Service. The stand-down period is the same for other groups at elevated probability of undiagnosed HIV infection. Rainbow Wellington says there should be an end to the blanket post-sex stand-down period, and for individual risk assessments to be used instead. Dr Peter Saxton from the Gay Men’s Sexual Health research group, which is based at Auckland University, was on the review team and says the Gay Men’s Sexual Health research group welcomes the reduction in the deferral period for gay and bisexual men, as well as for other groups at elevated probability of undiagnosed HIV infection. “We also accept that maintaining some period of deferral reflects the best scientific evidence currently available,” Dr Saxton says. “The absolute probability of undiagnosed infection may often be small, but the relative probability is greater for [men who have sex with men]. If the evidence changes, then we look forward to the criteria being revisited, as recommended in the report.” Dr Saxton says around 20 per cent of all prospective donors are deferred for a variety of reasons, such as a recent tattoo, and some are deferred based on heterosexual behaviours. New deferrals include ones based on travel and the risk of insect borne viruses. “The new policy will mean New Zealand has among the least restrictive donor deferral criteria for gay and bisexual men internationally, whilst still maintaining a safe, voluntary and completely self-sufficient blood supply. “We recognise that the most important duty for the NZ Blood Service is to protect blood recipients, to be precautionary, and we all benefit from that.” The Gay Men’s Sexual Health research group has put together a summary of the changes and the rationale behind them, which you can find here
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 16th December 2014 - 9:52am