[Hot Topic] Changes to Blood Donation Policy

Jargon: none

The right to donate blood into our national Canadian reserve has been limited to straight donors for over twenty five years (since 1985). The act of "men having sex with men, even once" has been listed as a clear high risk activity on questionnaires, and up until this year, has been a cause for a lifetime deferral, or ban, from donating. This was during the start of the AIDS/HIV epidemic, and we simply didn't have the testing knowledge to differentiate who had AIDS/HIV and who didn't. What we did know is that AIDS/HIV was being seen mainly in one population (MSM), and we needed to do everything in our power to prevent it's spread. At the time, generally everyone agreed that it was a good idea to ban donation.

Canadian Blood Services website states:

"All men who have had sex with another man, even once, since 1977 are indefinitely deferred. This is based on current scientific knowledge and statistical information that shows that men who have had sex with other men are at greater risk for HIV/AIDS infection than other people."

While the highest incidence of AIDS/HIV diagnosis/transmission is still from men having sex with men, there is also a high rate of heterosexual women being diagnosed each year. Our rules are no longer taking the appropriate risk factors into consideration... It's not the orientation that increases risk, it's the sexual behavior.

Right now, the donation questionnaires default to permanent ban on blood donation for any male on male experimentation at all; a permanent deferral for women who have sex with a man who has ever had any sexual contact with a man(bisexual men); and yet only a six month deferral on heterosexual people who have had sex with someone new. It's deemed to be "too invasive" and possibly "would deter donors" to ask any more specific questions about the sex lives of heterosexual donors. So Suzie, who has had three failed dating relationships this year in which she didn't use a condom, gets a six month deferral; but a gay man who has been monogamous with his partner for tens years would still be automatically banned for life. If Suzie starts a relationship with Jim, who experimented in college before deciding that he was heterosexual, Suzie now is deferred for life as well.

Over the last ten years or so, momentum to lift this ban has increased exponentially. The argument states that it is not the genders of the people have sex that is risky, it is the sexual behavior. Our technology has improved to the point of being able to screen for HIV in under three minutes, if testing for HIV antibodies (Health Canada approved BioLyticalInsti HIV test), or within ten days of infection, with the RNA amplication method. These testing methods have a 99.96% accuracy rate, and current process ensures blood is double checked for HIV/AIDS with a traditional test as well. We no longer have to worry about not detecting the AIDS virus.

On May 22, 2013, Canadian Blood Services release a memo updating it's policy to reflect this advance in technology and a more action based deferral policy. Now, Men who have had sex with men, if they are abstinent for five years, are now eligible again to donate blood. This change in policy, while a step in the right direction, is still problematic. The centre's media contact states that they will be collecting data on the blood donated from this new group of donors, and if encouraging, they will be opening up more opportunities for gay men in monogamous relationships to donate as well.

Wrinkles that are still being ironed out include the donation status of women who have had sex with bisexual men,  and the timeline of the introduction of these new policies.

CBS is currently aiming for a summer 2013 change to it's questionnaires, and further changes to come.