For those who don't know, blood banks do not allow men who have ever had any kind of sexual contact with another man to donate blood. A friend just sent me a link to this story which made me very happy whether or not it comes to anything:
Will it take an act of Congress to get the Food and Drug Administration to lift its ban on gay male donors? Or just Sen. John Kerry running his mouth about the stupid policy?
Just after we heard the excellent recommendations from the Gay Men's Health Crisis about how to fix the FDA's discriminatory (and altogether harmful) policy on gay men, it's Kerry to the rescue. "Not a single piece of scientific evidence supports the ban," says Kerry. "A law that was once considered medically justified is today simply outdated and needs to end."
I have given blood before but it is extremely frustrating to me to have to lie in order to do it. It would make me very happy to see someone end this insulting and harmful policy.
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists
There are certain countries that living there for ... don't remember how long, disqualifies you. China is one but former Soviet Union is not. Is U.K one because of mad cow disease?
A coworker has an illness where there's too much iron in his blood and be undergoes regular bloodletting but he can't donate it, being Chinese.
If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.
I think at this point if you've lived a certain number of years in Europe, they don't want you to donate. I'm almost at that limit (I noticed with some surprise) -- silly especially since I wasn't eating beef while there.
The two restrictions on donating if you've lived in Europe are (1) if you lived in the UK for three months or more from 1980-1996 or (2) if you lived in Europe for five years or more from 1980-present.
Here is some discussion of the UK reasoning, for those interested:
I won't just survive
Oh, you will see me thrive
Can't write my story
I'm beyond the archetype
I won't just conform
No matter how you shake my core
'Cause my roots, they run deep, oh
When, when the fire's at my feet again
And the vultures all start circling
They're whispering, "You're out of time,"
But still I rise
This is no mistake, no accident
When you think the final nail is in, think again
Don't be surprised, I will still rise
I'd assumed I couldn't donate, but it seems I can. Interesting. . . .
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
I'm just saying that banning all Europeans (or people who've lived five years in Europe) seems to me taking caution to the point of silliness. What percentage of Europeans can be expected to come down with vCJD (i.e. mad cow for people)? Really not that high, especially outside of the UK.
Just looking very briefly, I find one paper in the International Journal of Epidemiology (by Marc Chadeau-Hyam and Annick Alpérovitch) predicting 33 future case of vCJD in France. That's not a large number. Banning Europeans (and hangers-on like me) from donating blood seems like overkill.
Anyway, looks like Russia's not on the banned countries list, so that takes me down a few months below the five year donation limit, so whew.
Frelga wrote:
A coworker has an illness where there's too much iron in his blood and be undergoes regular bloodletting but he can't donate it, being Chinese.
That illness is called hemochromatosis and the blood is never allowed in the donor pool, regardless of the person's race.
Oh, and I am banned from giving blood in two states because twice now I've fainted while donating (my blood pressure is quite low, and it drops like crazy when I'm giving blood), and had mild seizures while unconscious. So I have lifetime bans in Florida and Arizona.
You know, I really think they're overreacting about this.
Last edited by anthriel on Sun Mar 21, 2010 3:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
"What do you fear, lady?" Aragorn asked.
"A cage," Éowyn said. "To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
I can't give blood in Poland (or anywhere else apparently) because I lived in Ireland for four years, 1991-1995.
Whether the fear of mad cow disease is a good reason for a ban or not, I don't know...but the ban on gay blood is obviously ridiculous as the medical reasons for it have long ago been proved false. I hate it when mistakes stay in the system like that. Glad to see that little story, yov
Frelga wrote:Interesting, Anthy. Why don't they? It's not contagious, as far as I know. Thanks for claryfying, I just went by what he told me.
I've never given blood - I tend to be borderline anemic. Should get on iron pills again.
I had thought it might not be allowed because the high level of iron in their blood could be poisonous to others.
However, with a quick Google search, I found that the American Hemochromatosis Society says that donations were approved as of 1999 under certain circumstances, though it does appear that blood banks must file for a "variance" to do so.
Currently, FDA does not prohibit the use of blood from therapeutic bleedings, but requires that blood intended for transfusion be labeled with the donor's disease (21 CFR 640.3(d)). In addition, the regulations state that a person may donate a unit of blood more than once in eight weeks only after a physical examination and certification of health by a physician (21 CFR 640.3(f)).
Many blood establishments that collect blood during a therapeutic phlebotomy have not routinely distributed this blood for transfusion, because consignees have refused to accept blood that is labeled with a disease. Thus, the labeling requirement is considered to be a barrier to the use of blood from HH donors for transfusion, despite evidence that this blood is safe.
There have been several studies that have shown an increase in the prevalence of bloodborne viral pathogens in blood obtained from paid donors as compared to volunteer donors. Therefore, there is concern about creating an incentive for HH patients to donate blood for free, rather than pay for a therapeutic phlebotomy. If a blood establishment charged a fee for therapeutic phlebotomy, but not for a blood donation for transfusion, the HH donor would have an incentive to deny risk conditions that might preclude cost-free donation. In this circumstance, blood donation provides indirect compensation for medical phlebotomy.
BrianIs AtYou
Last edited by BrianIsSmilingAtYou on Wed Mar 24, 2010 4:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
All of my nieces and nephews at my godson/nephew Nicholas's Medical School graduation. Now a neurosurgical resident at University of Arizona, Tucson.
Frelga, I've never been sure of the hard science reasons, and it could be because there are none. It may just be that trying to help people by giving them blood taken from someone with a blood-based disorder seems a bit counterintuitive.
Brian, thank you for that info. I did blood banking a LONG time before 1999!
"What do you fear, lady?" Aragorn asked.
"A cage," Éowyn said. "To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Well, the rules about blood are fairly arbitrary - most of the people who get tattoos do so at parlors that use sterile needles, but it'll still knock you off the blood donor pool for a year. The reason that men who have had sex with men were added to the list is because of HIV, and that's still more common in homosexual men than in the general population in most parts of the US. [In my city, it's IV drug users and prostitutes who have the highest incidences...and the Red Cross bans them as well.] Since all the blood is tested for HIV anyway, I'm not sure there's any particular reason to keep that restriction, but I certainly understand why it got put there in the first place.
And with safety rules...no one is ever willing to be the person to revoke a measure that was put in place for safety reasons. Because if *anything* goes wrong...you're at fault.
