In Canada, the USA and several other industrialized nations, blood donations from men who have sex with men (MSM) have been banned since 1983. Pioneering AIDS researchers, Dr. Mark Wainberg and Dr. Norbert Gilmore say that while this may have been ethically and scientifically justified then, it no longer makes sense – they express their views in the latest issue of CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).
Dr. Wainberg, heads the HIV research program at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research (LDI) at the Jewish General Hospital and was a co-discoverer of 3TC, one of the first drugs known to control HIV. He also heads the McGill University AIDS Centre, based at the LDI. Dr. Norbert Gilmore is a professor at the McGill Faculty of Medicine and the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law, and is a clinician at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC)
Dr. Wainberg said:
The 1983 ban has hung on so long, unfortunately, because many people became infected by HIV in the early 80s through blood transfusions, and they have mounted continuing pressure on the blood agencies to maintain the ban. While we can sympathize with them, this no longer makes sense in 2010, and with each passing year it makes less sense.
Wainberg and Gilmore state that gay men in stable, long-term, monogamous relationships should be allowed to donate blood, while those with multiple sex partners should not.
Heterosexuals with multiple partners, Wainberg points out, currently only face one-year deferrals. Gilmore said:
Other jurisdictions, like Australia, have already replaced the lifetime ban with more balanced and realistic policies, and I think it’s time that Canada and the U.S. did the same. Today’s technology makes it almost impossible for HIV to slip through, and the total ban puts a huge burden on blood agencies and the blood supply. We constantly have blood shortages that would not occur, perhaps, if we had a more reasonable policy.
Wainberg adds:
There’s a social justice aspect to this as well, which extends beyond the gay community. When a discriminatory policy isn’t justified by the science, it leads to controversy. We’ve seen protests and boycotts of blood drives on Canadian campuses, so I think the blood agencies would be better off if they agreed with us. I suspect, honestly, that many of them already do, in private.
“Reconsidering the lifetime deferral of blood donation by men who have sex with men”
Mark A Wainberg, Talia Shuldiner, Karine Dahl, and Norbert Gilmore
Published online ahead of print May 25, 2010
CMAJ 10.1503/cmaj.091476
Written by Christian Nordqvist