Equality advocates are urging Lifeblood to screen donors on their sexual activity rather than place a blanket ban on men who are sexually active with men | Dana_Adele
Australian Red Cross Lifeblood is considering changing rules to allow more gay and bisexual men to donate plasma, but equality advocates are urging it to go further and screen donors on their sexual activity to reduce HIV risk.
Let Us Give will launch a campaign on Tuesday, World Blood Donor Day, to replace the abstinence rule with an individual risk assessment, following the lead of countries like Canada, France the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The NSW Kirby Institute’s most recent HIV surveillance report found that male-to-male sex accounted for 58 per cent of HIV notifications in 2020 with 365 cases, compared with 155 from heterosexual sex .
“We understand these rules exclude some groups ... We hear the hurt, frustration, and the anger,” the spokeswoman said. “We’re exploring whether it may be possible to further reduce the three-month waiting period for plasma donations, [which] undergo processing that reduces the risk of possible infections.
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