A public meeting is being held today to discuss the UK’s longstanding ban on gay men giving blood.
The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs will be considering the current regulation which prohibits any man who has had anal or oral sex with another man donation blood. The ban was put in place in 1985 to protect the blood supply.
Although THT, the UK’s largest HIV charity currently supports the ban, others including human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell and the National Union of Students.
Tatchell argues that the current ban is homophobic and does not take account of the what is now known of the risks of HIV transmission, testing technology and the epidemiology of the infection.
Earlier this year, the National Blood Service issued a position paper justifying the current ban.
This points out that gay men remain the group most affect by HIV in the UK, and that removing the ban on gay men giving blood would lead to a fivefold increase in the risk of HIV-infected blood entering the blood supply.
Moreover, the paper also highlights that gay men have high rates of other blood-borne infections, such as syphilis and hepatitis B.
Gay men are far from being the only group who are excluded from giving blood on either a permanent or temporary basis. For example, individuals who have had tattoos or piercings have a temporary ban imposed on their donation of blood. There are also temporary or permanent prohibitions on blood donation in place affecting sex workers; those who have had sex with sex workers; individuals who have ever injecting drug users; people who have had sex with individuals from countries with a high HIV prevalence; and those who originate from such countries.
Those advocating the repeal of the ban argue that not only is the ban homophobic, but it is scientifically unsound as all donations are tested for infections before entering the blood supply.
However, a case a HIV transmission was reported in 2004 after a donated sample, which had been screened for HIV was given to a patient. The sample was donated by a man who denied any high risk behaviour. It seems likely that the man was in the earliest stages of HIV infection and even the advanced testing technologies were not able to detect his HIV infection.