Fri 20 Jun 2008 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
LGBT network Rainbow Wellington has blasted the New Zealand Blood Service's report which recommends a continued ban on sexually active gay male donors, saying it excludes gay men who are of 'minimal risk' of passing on HIV. An independent group reviewing the criteria for blood donation has now recommended that the Blood Service reduce the current period of prohibition on blood donations from men who have sex with men from ten years down to five. "That might look like an advance, but from our point of view it takes us nowhere," says Rainbow Wellington's Chair Tony Simpson. "Any sexually active gay man is going to be just as excluded by that provision as they are by the previous limit of ten years." The report's justification is that whereas a reduction from ten to five years does not increase risk of passing on HIV, there is a marginal increase in risk if the reduction goes down to one year - as in Australia - and a significant further risk if the limitation is abandoned completely - as in Russia recently. "Our argument in rebuttal would firstly turn on the nature of that margin of increased risk which we would say in practical terms was negligible," Simpson replies. "We would also argue that alternative testing methods which can actually identify the presence of HIV/AIDS are not only considerably more reliable than simply asking someone about their sex life. People tell fibs. "They also make it possible to reduce the limitation to three months, at which point the level of risk entailed is also minimal, in our view." The report suggests much narrower definition of what is ‘sex' in the context of risky behaviours for passing on HIV. "Under the current open-ended definition it might feasibly include tickling someone on the foot - or whatever other fetish takes your fancy. The proposal is to restrict the meaning of ‘sex' to anal or oral sex with or without a condom. That is certainly an improvement," says Simpson. The third recommendation relevant to the gay New Zealanders concerns the layout of the form currently used by the Blood Service, and the desirability of the availability of counselling services for those who take exception to their exclusion from donation on the grounds that they have sex with other men - so they can be reassured that they are not being discriminated against on the basis of their sexual orientation. Rainbow Wellington expressed reservations about this idea in their original submissions on the draft report, says Simpson. "Unless it is carefully handled in consultation with those representing gay groups, it might just as easily lead to more argument at the point of donation than not." The report's recommendations are now under consideration by the New Zealand Blood Service.