Media 2 Studio PB2 – Research on Gay Men Donating Blood
http://www.donateblood.com.au/sites/default/files/Male-to-male_deferral_factsheet_0.pdf
- A man who has had sexual relations (oral, anal or safe sex) with another man cannot donate blood for 12 months after sexual contact in Australia
- These policies aren’t meant to discriminate but are based on risk assessment
- Even men in an exclusive gay relationship has on average, a 50 times greater risk of HIV infection, compared to heterosexual Australians with a new sexual partner
- Rights aren’t what they care about, safety is what they care about
- They don’t rely on testing alone as due to the timing and sensitive testing ,they aren’t able to pick up HIV straight away, therefore they take all safety precautions necessary
- 2015 Australia showed that men who have sex with men are accounted for 87% of newly acquired HIV infections
SAME ISSUE BUT IN ANOTHER COUNTRY (UK)
- Gay men donating blood in the UK
- A man who had an sexual relationship with another man was banned for life in giving blood, no matter how safe or no matter how much time has passed
- The ban was put into place from the HIV crisis from 1983
- The 12-month ban period might change to 3 months. However this isn’t a promotion of LGBT but because of technological advances
- It generally takes 4 weeks for HIV to show in a blood sample
- Promoting ideas of blood donors being individually tested and trusted to regain equality
- HIV still affects the gay community
- Therefore donation should be implanted through a case-by-case basis
- There needs to be more trust put into Gay men
- The level of risk should be indicated by each individuals ability to donate blood, not by the gender of their partner/partners
- For now it appears that gay men can’t be trusted in their sexual activity engagement, take pre-cautions or be truthful about what they’ve done
http://www.abc.net.au/archives/80days/stories/2012/01/19/3411655.htm
- The HIV crisis in the early 1980s in Australia, changed the social and political landscape of Australia today
- Gay men, IV drug users and sex workers
- Between 1983-1985, 4500 Australians were acclaimed HIV positive
- The first diagnosis of AIDS in Australia was in November 1982 and the first death from AIDS occurred in July 1984
- 6,459 deaths from AIDS in Australia
- 23,989 of HIV infections
- 9,392 cases of AIDS
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=117970&page=1
- Science or discrimination?
- It assumes that all gay men are HIV positive regardless of their sexual behavior
- Everyone is equally at risk for HIV infection, however it needs to be about specific sexual behavior and not sexual orientation
- The FDA is considering to shift the policy to gay men need to abstain from homosexual sex for 5 years before donating blood
- Agency is being conservative as they are worried about blood banking errors
- ‘Dayton says changing to a five-year celibacy policy will result in more than 62,000 new men donating blood. Less than one unit of HIV-positive blood per year would escape into the blood supply.’
- ‘A one-year celibacy policy would generate 112,000 new donors and up to three units of HIV-infected blood, Dayton says.’
- “Most gay men want to do their duty and be able to give blood”
https://medicalreview.columbia.edu/article/ban-the-ban/
- May 2015, FDA suggested a shift from the life long ban to a 12 month ban on donating blood for gays in America
- However this notion of the ban although has improved, is still considered very discriminative towards the gays
- The FDA implemented the lifelong ban in America in 1983 due to the HIV crisis at the time
- This ban included men having sex with men, women having sex with men who has sex with men, transgender individuals who have had sex with men who has sex with men were also banned
- Those in relationships or use condoms or undergo abstinence are banned still
- There is a clear need to increase the number of individuals willing to donate
- 38% of the population is willing to donate but only 10% does
- 2,603,004 individuals are banned from donating blood
- ‘Were the ban lifted, it would result in an estimated 130,150 additional donors and 219,200 additional pints of blood’
- Dr Alix Mathieu (the bans opposition leader) stated ‘this disease is not one of races or nationalities, it is one of risky behavior’
- This message sent from all places ‘banning’ gay men from the donating of blood makes them feel ‘unwelcome’. This ban can make them follow the rules of not donating or make them lie about previous sexual relations in order to donate blood
- FDA should shift to an ‘Assess and Test’ model on every individual attempting to donate blood
- ‘The Assess and Test approach uses rational and scientifically based deferral periods, applied fairly, to maximize the donor pool and minimize risk.’
- There needs to be more awareness and support from every individual about this discriminative issue at hand
http://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Gates-Goldberg-MSM-Blood-Ban-Jun-2010.pdf
- More than 6% of men declare they have had sex with a male partner at least once since the age of 18
- 4% of men have had a male sex partner in the past 5 years
- 5% of men have reported having sex with another man in the last year
- The Centre for Disease control estimate that 532,000 men who have sex with men are HIV positive
- 39% of HIV negative eligible adults are able to donate blood in a given year but only 5% actually do
- ‘Approximately 16 million donations (of a pint of blood) made by 9.5 million donors, yielding approximately 1.7 donations per donor.’
- ‘If the current MSM ban were completely lifted, we estimate that an additional 130,150 men would likely donate 219,200 additional pints of blood each year.’
- ‘If MSM who have not had sexual contact with another man in the past twelve months were permitted to donate, we estimate that 53,269 additional men are likely to donate 89,716 pints each year.’
- ‘If MSM who have not had sexual contact with another man in the past five years were permitted to donate, we estimate that 42,286 additional men would make 71,218 blood donations.’
- ‘Our analyses suggest that lifting the ban could increase the total annual US blood supply by 0.6% to 1.4%.’
- All statistics are estimated by the Centres for Disease Control
http://www.redcrossblood.org/learn-about-blood/blood-facts-and-statistics
- Every 2 seconds someone in the US needs blood
- Approximately 36,000 units of red blood cells are needed every day in the US
- Nearly 21 million blood components are transfused each year in the U.S.
- The average red blood cell transfusion is approximately 3 pints.
- The blood type most often requested by hospitals is type O.
- The blood used in an emergency is already on the shelves before the event occurs.
- It is estimated that sickle cell disease affects 90,000 to 100,000 people in the U.S. About 1,000 babies are born with the disease each year. Sickle cell patients can require frequent blood transfusions throughout their lives.
- According to the American Cancer Society, more than 1.69 million people are expected to be diagnosed with cancer in 2017. Many of them will need blood, sometimes daily, during their chemotherapy treatment.
- A single car accident victim can require as many as 100 pints of blood.
- An average adult has 10 pints of blood in his/her system and only 1 pint of blood is donated
http://www.donateblood.com.au/learn#how-your-blood-is-used
- One third of blood donated helps treat people with cancer
- The blood donated can be made into 22 different medical treatments
- You can donate whole blood, plasma or platelets
- Plasmas donated are used for cancer blood diseases, haemophilia, anaemia, heart disease, stomach disease, childbirth operations, blood loss, trauma, burns
- It can be stored for 42 days
- You can donated every 12 weeks
- 34% is donated to cancer and blood diseases
- 19% is donated for other anaemia cases
- 18% for other open heart surgery and burn
- 13% is donated for other problems such as heart, stomach and kidney disease
- 10% is donated to orthopedic patients including fractures and joint replacements
- 4% is donated to obstetrics, including pregnant women, new mothers and young children
- 2% is donated to trauma including road incident patients
Nakita xx