Should men who have ever had sex with men be allowed to give blood? Yes

doi:10.1136/bmj.b311

Published 26 February 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b311
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b311

Head to Head

Should men who have ever had sex with men be allowed to give blood? Yes

Bob Roehr, biomedical journalist

¹ Washington, DC

bobroehr@aol.com

Bob Roehr says that the current ban on blood donations fromgay men is not supported by evidence, but Jay P Brooks (doi:10.1136/bmj.b318)says that the risk of transmission of infection is too great

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The lifetime ban on blood donation from men who have had sexwith men (MSM) has no scientific justification, particularlywhen other high risk groups are not similarly excluded. Furthermore,the full costs of maintaining the ban often are not taken intoaccount; they need to be tallied in making the risk-benefitdecision.

Marc Germain and colleagues at the Hema-Quebec blood service,Montreal, estimate that changing the deferral of MSM to 12 monthsfrom when the last sex took place with a new partner would resultin the release of only one more unit of HIV positive blood amongthe 15 million units a year processed in the United States.¹

They have continued to refine this model, plugging in the effectof newer, more accurate screening tests and better epidemiologicaldata on the changing face of the epidemic, which reduced therisk even further. Speaking from the audience during a . . . [Full text of this article]

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