Gay people banned from giving blood - homophobic? <again>

[Fridayfeeling]

No this is not the 1980s, apparently it is still the case that gay men are banned from donating blood.

The NHS National Blood Service say that its reasons for banning gay people from becoming blood donors come down to cost,their opinion is that blood from a gay person is more likely to be infected than blood from a straight person. Therefore, they say, the costs of screening gay blood are too high.

It's not the lurgy in the blood you should be worried about it is the prevalence of non treatable TB ...

Which reminds me that I am still waiting for the TB check the Health Division said I would have when I came to the UK (didn't have any up to date TB records) - that was almost 9 years ago...

It is safer than it has ever been KM and bearing in mind you only generally get a BT when you are in a dodgy life threatening situation it's still a safer bet than not having one.

its not homophobic to ask gay makles not to donate. there is a lag as MB says between getting infected and antibodies showing up.

dh has had many transfusions, and i am very reassured that the blood service does everything possible to minimalise risks of infections for the people who need blood.

I am very surprised that Russia is seen as a low risk country. It's absolutely rife with HIV/Aids .. a fact that Mr Putin is not that keen to air.

As far as I'm aware, and has already been mentioned, this is not an exercise in homophobia at all. Heterosexuals who practice anal sex would also be banned, I'm sure.

Unfortunately, unprotected anal sex is the most prevalent means by which the virus spreads, as everyone knows.

Interestingly, the demographic group which is most frequently being diagnosed with HIV in my area is married men who have "on the side" casual sex with other men. I was quite by this.

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Nothing in life is 100% safe KM, and anyone who tells you differently is lying.

the risk is tiny, and far, far smaller than the risk you run for not having a Blood transfusion when you need one.

I'm not!

I used to date a doctor in the early 90s, when HIV worries were at their peak. Patients were asked to disclose their sexual practices, and because they had nothing to lose, they were very frank with their disclosures.

Almost without exception, those who had contracted HIV had indulged in anal sex, whether they were gay, hetero or bi. The message is pretty clear. If you're going to go there, it's absolutely vital that you use full protection.

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There are very, very few people who simply can't get the blood they need

I used to work on a product called erythropeitin, it stimulated the body to make more red blood cells.

We were once asked what dose shedule to give someone who needed to be a blood donor to her brother, as she was the only 'good' blood match in Europe! But that was exceptionally rare. In fact it only ever happened once.

While blood units may wellrun shorter than they like, I don't know if them ever running out. But I am happy to be corrected by people who know more

and did you know that the most common group treated for TB is white men in their 30's and 40's!

I have a friend who is a TB nurse and she's always keen to dispel the myth that she mainly treats "foreigners"........

Why are you always so chippy, MF?

I am relating what a doctor told me in the early 90s. I'm no expert, naturally, but how do you know with a certainty that they haven't had anal sex? Perhaps they don't feel like revealing it to you.

Many people denied it at first, according to the doc I'm 'quoting.'

Desi so true about Russia and HIV. Not sure how the nice people at the blood sessions officially class it but I have never been asked anything about my time there and get waved right in, unlike my friend who has been to African countries a few times. But then she did get some strange disease . Incidently she is allowed to give, overcame a fear of needles to do so twice but is way too slow, failed to give anywhere near a full donation and has been told to try again in a few years bless her!

Yes, bless her indeed, Indith. I'm mortified to admit it, but there's no way I'd give blood. I have very small veins, and it's bloody agony. It takes forever, I can't give my quota, and I end up looking like I've been beaten up.

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I'm banned from giving blood because I spent 8 hours in Mexico in 1980.

MF, what the majority of people are trying to say on this thread is that being banned from giving blood is not homophobic. Plenty of examples have been cited to support this.

I have said that having unprotected anal sex is dangerous. You are saying that telling people anal sex is dangerous is ... dangerous! I'm afraid the facts are on my side, whether it suits you or not. Anal sex in the context of a loving, monogamous partnership ... fine. Casual anal sex, not fine.

Chippy means quick to take offence and wade into an argument, even when one doesn't exist.

There does seem an underlying assumption though that gay men are more promiscuous than heterosexual though........you say that anal sex in a loving monogomous relationship is fine ---- do you mean gay monogomous relationships too or just heterosexual?

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If you look at the history of AIDs in the West the spread was initially seen in gay men. At the time Bath house sex was quite common in some parts of the US. Some of the earliest cases of AIDs in the gay communities of New york, SF and LA were in men who did have vast numbers of sexual partners. Many had thousands of life time partners. Some numbered 10's of thousands. A man going to the bath houses at the time would average 2.7 sexual partners per visit.

NB I'm not saying this was wrong or bad, or reprehensible. And I'm definitely not saying that this means they 'deserved' to get aids, or hep b or anything else. But these men did have vastly more sexual partners than most het men, or women.

Things have changed, since those early days and Gay patterns of sexuality are now different. The fastest growing group of people getting aids in the UK are the straights.

But historically it wasn't always the same, and this explains the different patterns and rates of spread of AINDS in the different sexual populations of the UK.

People interested in the early spread of AIDS should read 'And the Band Played on' by Randy Shiltz, who provided the stats I used at the start of the post. And lest I be called a Homophobe he is (or was, I think he might be dead now) a Gay journalist

Looking at the incidence of HIV in Western Europe

I found these figures from 2006

'54% probably acquired HIV through heterosexual contact
37% were men who had sex with men

8% were injecting drug users
35% were female '

So the largest number of people getting HIV are heterosexual, but given that smaller numbers of people are gay than het percentage wise it is still more common in Europe to have HIV if you are gay than straight.

The statistics are very different in sub saharan africa.

and the reson isn't due to badness or wickedness, just epidemiology.