BLOOD MANAGEMENT
From November 7, gay men will be able to donate blood for the first time since the emergence of HIV and Aids in the mid-1980s. Kate Ashley reports.
T
he lifetime ban on gay or bi- sexual men donating blood
has been lifted in the UK, after a team of experts stated that it was no longer required to stop the spread of infection through blood.
If men have had sex with another man within the last 12 months they will still be barred from donating. This puts them into the same cat- egory of risk as other groups such as sex workers, anyone who has had sex with a sex worker or intra- venous drug-user in the past year, and women who have slept with a man who has had sex with another male.
The decision follows a review by the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (Sab- to), which concluded that the latest evidence suggested the ban was no longer justified.
Many gay rights groups welcome the change, including the Terrence Higgins Trust. Sir Nick Partridge, its chief executive, said: “Thirty years on from the devastating, tragic and fatal arrival of HIV and AIDS there has been a growing sense that the lifetime ban was no longer ‘right’.”
The new regulations “will ensure the safety of the blood supply for all of us while also being fair and equal in their application”, he said.
However, many campaigners feel it is still a form of discrimination against gay men, as the ban would not allow sexually active men in monogamous relationships to do- nate, even if they always used con- doms.
The Health Minister for Northern Ireland, Edwin Poots, has been re- cently criticised for maintaining the ban. Poots told the Assembly: “This is a complex area. Blood-borne in- fections, well-recognised or as yet undiscovered, have the potential to destroy healthy lives. Public safety must be my primary concern and I want the Northern Ireland public to have maximum confidence in our blood supply.”
The different regulations in North- ern Ireland and the mainland UK could affect the transfer of blood supplies between the two and force Northern Ireland to become ‘self- sufficient’ in donated blood.
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national health executive Sep/Oct 11 | 81
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