On HIV and Blood Donation

not to rag on sex workers, but they are being exposed to multiple often anonymous partners. it's not just a case of saying that they have 'bad sex'

My point was that a single instance of protected gay sex is considered equivalent to that. As mentioned, seems a tad unfair.

What's precedent ever done for us?

Yeah... that's bullshit. We should just do HIV/AIDS testing and tell the Religious Right to get over itself... it won't happen anytime soon, though...

I am now known as Flyboy.

@Medinoc: Aha! Just the one I was referring to. My thanks.

I think It's more HIV scare then homophobia but I adgree that the ban simply doesn't hold water.

I'm reminded of the controversy of using 'negro blood' in transfusions back in World War II. And at least that has a spurious justification of racial biological compatibility. No such argument can be made about gay man.

edited 18th Aug '11 7:01:37 PM by joeyjojo

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Considering who isn't banned, I don't think so.

Dumbo

I donate blood altruistically about twice a year. I make sure to do it at least once in a private hospital a couple of blocks from my house for the side benefit that they give you a letter the day after with the results of their analysis of your donated blood. Among the normal things like plasma and hemoglobin count are the antibody levels for HIV and hepatitis.

While I'm not doing any kind of high risk behavior for those things, it's actually reassuring to get the confirmation. I dunno, it's probably unfounded paranoia, but it is nice to know. While they probably ask because of a window between infection and antibody formation, it does seem unfair to automatically and permanently exclude a group of people with such easily available testing.

From what nurses have told me the tragedy here is that the gay community are/were big supporters of altruistic blood donations.

Kind of jealous.

Well you can still get some diseases (lice and crabs for one).

Technically not a disease, just parasites.

If a chicken crosses the road and nobody else is around to see it, does the road move beneath the chicken instead?

Similar sort of area though (pun intended), but yeah about a question I asked earlier, how often CAN you donate blood?

Not sure if it's the same everywhere, but down here it's one pint of red blood cells & plasma every two months, or two pints of just red blood cells every 4 months.

They lost me. Forgot me. Made you from parts of me. If you're the One, my father's son, what am I supposed to be?

Some countries (Sweden not included) allow MSM MSM

to donate blood some time after last unprotected encounter. In an interesting twist ,amy of those countries are Catholic and otherwise really conservative.

Anyway, the ban is BS these days, because all the blood is tested anyway, and accepting donations from people who don't have the virus just because they could have it is just discrimination.

The deferral period for tattoos and piercings also bothers me, because I got my ink at a very reputable shop, where the artist wears gloves, the needles are taken from a sealed package and the tattoo machine is autoclaved before use, and copious amounts of disinfectant is sprayed at various points of the process.

the statement above is false

In the UK I hear they are thinking of changing it so that you can donate blood if you go 10 years or more without having gay sex. This to me is still a whole lot of BS and doesn't really make much of a difference at all. Baby steps I suppose.

if your part of a high risk group it's a standard precaution. But they doesn't seem to be any real evidence that gay men are.

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@Jethro: Unfortunately, over here (in the US) there's quite a few cases of blood-born diseases that get passed on via tattoo. Even reputable shops have it happen sometimes. All it takes is one idiot, and someone winds up with hepatitis.

I don't see a problem with waiting a couple of months, especially since stuff like Hep A/B and HIV takes a while to even show up on tests.

"I don't know how I do it. I'm like the Mr. Bean of sex." -Drunkscriblerian

In the news, EU is looking into the whole MSM blood donation ban, and will issue some statement in a year or two, probably advocating ending the lifelong ban. Hopefully we can soon leave that part of the hysteria behind.

@Joey: There's no such thing as risk group, there is risk behaviour.

the statement above is false

Same different.

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Well I can't give blood, because they'd have to card anyone who would receive my blood. On account of it having a proof and all.

I can't give blood because i'm british.

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OP: Not sure if there's a difference between having anal sex with a woman or a man when it comes to HIV transmission. (I wouldn't think there would be.) However, anal sex is more likely to transmit HIV than vaginal or oral.*

More info at the CDC site.

(Yes, I did have to do a report on the subject once. How could you tell?)

Yeah the anus was never intended for recreation.

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Seriously, though, at any time my blood has at least 10% alcohol content. Red Cross turned me away because they didn't want to card people who receive blood.

How do you know? I didn't come with an instruction manual and I hear that's common.

A brighter future for a darker age.

Well, you can't say it's 'intended' for anything unless there's a higher power that made it. Better wording might be 'adapted for reproduction'.

Be not afraid...

No but there's is a downloadable PDF on it,

edited 24th Aug '11 6:00:23 AM by joeyjojo

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