As the IBTS wish everyone a happy New Year on their facebook page , it came to mind that the discriminatory practice of discriminating against men based on sexual preference is still in operation. In June 2011 James Reilly sent a letter to Edward Poots, minister for Health in Northern Ireland in which he outlined the principle reason why the ban exists:
http://www.broadsheet.ie/2012/06/20/...-blood-donors/
based not only on risk factors for HIV but on other blood borne agents known to be associated with MSM (men who have sex with men) behaviour”.
The UK has looked at things differently however and taken a different approach to how things are. The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs has relaxed the ban and now men whom have not had gay sex for more than twelve months will be able to donate blood should they wish which is in complete contrast to the archaic and prehistoric policy implemented by the HSE and the IBTS. People whom have had unprotected sex are also included in this as are people whom have engaged in oral sex . On the IBTS website the question on men who have sex with men (MSM) is not covered
http://www.giveblood.ie/Become_a_Don...d/success.html
While HIV testing can give a false positive, the rate of this is very very low (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnosis_of_HIV/AIDS). HIV and other diseases do not discriminate on the basis of gender and sexuality. While HIV cases are higher amongst MSM this is not to say that the gay community is at fault for a lot of these cases as all it takes is one man (or one woman for that matter) to infect any number of people .
Time to end the ban now...
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