Wed 18 Jun 2008 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
The New Zealand AIDS Foundation has welcomed the New Zealand Blood Service's report into blood donor restrictions for men who have sex with men, which it believes "focus on sexual behaviour, not on sexuality". An independent expert review released this week recommends that men who have had anal or oral sex with other men in the last five years should still be excluded from donating their blood, a reduction from the current ten-year restriction. The NZAF's Research Director was a member of the Blood Service's review group. "NZAF has always worked to ensure policies that impact on HIV prevention are based on science and epidemiology," says the NZAF's HIV Prevention Manager Simon Harger-Forde. "We understand that the expert review commissioned by the New Zealand Blood Service considered the biological risks of HIV contaminating the blood service. "NZAF supports the New Zealand Blood Service to do all that they can to ensure there is no risk of HIV being in the blood system. NZAF is pleased that as a result of the review, the approach to the ban for men who have sex with men and have been sexually active in the last five years has been made more equitable. "The revised guidelines focus on sexual behaviour not on sexuality," he concludes. "Gay men who have practised safe sex within the last five years are excluded but so are those Zimbabweans who have not been sexually active for a long time and those who were vegetarians in the UK during the 'Mad Cow Disease' outbreak." The report's medical experts agreed that blood from a man who has had oral or anal sex "with or without a condom" with another man would be blocked from giving blood - which seems at odds with the Foundation's 'Condoms stop HIV' messages. "Condoms are the most effective way to reduce the risk of sexual transmission of HIV," Harger-Forde replies. "Blood services have approached the need for greater protection with a 'blanket ban' on populations where the epidemiology shows that HIV is high prevalence. The evidence is clear that HIV is 40 times more prevalent in the population of men who have sex with men in New Zealand, than in any other population."