Sperm banks to reject donations from men who have sex with men, gay groups protest

Main Category: Fertility
Article Date: 08 May 2005 - 11:00 PDT


Men who have sex with men will be rejected as anonymous sperm donors as from May 25th when a FDA regulation comes into force. The regulation is aimed at stemming the spread of AIDS. Gay groups are protesting saying the measure is unscientific and discriminatory.

Any man who has had sex with another man within the previous five years will not be able to become an anonymous sperm donor. Gay groups say that heterosexual sex is becoming as prominent in the spread of AIDS as gay sex. Groups also say it is easy for labs to screen out any infected sperm before it is considered for fertility treatment.

Most sperm banks already implement strict procedures which exclude 'higher risk individuals' such as sexually active gay men, some hemophiliacs and drug users (who inject themselves).

Diagnoses of HIV/AIDS - 32 States, 2000-2003, USA

An estimated 850,000--950,000 persons in the United States are living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), including 180,000--280,000 who do not know they are infected (1). To examine trends of diagnoses for 2000--2003, CDC analyzed HIV and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) together as HIV/AIDS (i.e., HIV infection with or without AIDS), counted by the year of earliest reported diagnosis of HIV infection. From 2000 to 2003, in 32 states* that used confidential, name-based reporting of HIV and AIDS cases for >4 years, the overall annual rate of diagnosis of HIV/AIDS remained stable. However, rates among non-Hispanic black females were 19 times higher than rates among non-Hispanic white females, underscoring the need for continued emphasis on programs targeting females in racial/ethnic minority populations to reduce the number of cases of HIV/AIDS.

CDC surveillance reports of HIV/AIDS are limited to cases among residents of states and U.S. territories where surveillance for non-AIDS HIV infection is conducted by using the same confidential, name-based reporting approach as for AIDS case reporting (2). The number of states conducting HIV/AIDS surveillance in this manner has gradually increased, resulting in available data for a greater proportion of cases in the United States. Numbers of cases, age-adjusted rates, and associated confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated, adjusting for random variation, reporting delay, and missing information on HIV risk factors (e.g., men who have sex with men [MSM] and injection-drug use [IDU]) (3,4). Data from territories were not included in this analysis.

Cases were classified in the following hierarchy of transmission categories: MSM, IDU, both MSM and IDU, high-risk heterosexual contact (i.e., with someone of the opposite sex known to have HIV/AIDS or a risk factor [e.g., MSM or IDU] for HIV/AIDS), and all other HIV risk factors combined. Age-adjusted rates were calculated by the direct method, using the age distribution of the 2000 U.S. population as the standard. The statistical significance of differences between a pair of rates was assessed by the z test. To estimate the annual proportional change in a rate or number of diagnoses during 2000--2003, the logarithm of the rate or number was fit to a linear model. The significance of a trend was assessed by determining whether the 95% CI for the estimated annual proportional change included zero.

During 2000--2003, HIV/AIDS was diagnosed in 125,800 persons who resided in the 32 states. Of these persons, 35,241 (28.0%) were female. Although non-Hispanic blacks constituted 13% of the population of the 32 states during these 4 years (5), they accounted for more than half (64,532 [51.3%]) of the HIV/AIDS diagnoses, including 68.8% of diagnoses among females and 44.5% of those among males. The remaining cases were among non-Hispanic whites (40,284 [32.0%]), Hispanics (18,642 [14.8%]), Asians/Pacific Islanders (799 [0.6%]), and American Indians/Alaska Natives (715 [0.6%]). Non-Hispanic blacks constituted 35.2% of cases in the MSM transmission category, 56.9% of cases in the IDU transmission category, 70.4% of cases in the high-risk heterosexual contact category, and 69.8% of cases of mother-to-child transmission. The transmission category with the largest proportion of males with HIV/AIDS was MSM (61.2%), followed by high-risk heterosexual contact (17.3%), and IDU (14.6%). The transmission category with the largest proportion of females with HIV/AIDS was high-risk heterosexual contact (77.7%), followed by IDU (19.4%). The proportional distribution of cases by transmission category varied by race/ethnicity.

During 2000--2003, annual age-adjusted rates of HIV/AIDS diagnosis per 100,000 population changed little. Overall, the rate increased 1.0%, from 19.5 in 2000 to 19.7 in 2003. Further analyses indicated statistically significant (p<0.05) changes among certain populations. The rate among males increased 3.0% (from 27.9 to 28.8), and the rate among females decreased 3.7% (from 11.2 to 10.8). The rate among non-Hispanic white males increased 6.2% (from 14.3 to 15.2), and the rate among Asian/Pacific Islander males increased 39.7% (from 7.0 to 9.8); the rate among non-Hispanic black females decreased 6.0% (from 56.4 to 53.0). Trends in annual age-adjusted rates among other sex and racial/ethnic groups were not significant.

Rates among non-Hispanic black females were 19 times the rate among non-Hispanic white females, five times the rate among Hispanic females, and also higher than rates among males in any racial/ethnic population other than non-Hispanic blacks. Rates among non-Hispanic black males were seven times higher than those among non-Hispanic white males and three times higher than those among Hispanic males. CONTINUES.... www.cdc.gov

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