Canada Aims to End Ban on Blood Donations from Gay, Bisexual Men

Dec. 6, 2021 -- The extremity of Canada’s prohibition connected cheery and bisexual men from donating humor based connected sexual orientation unsocial whitethorn soon beryllium history.

Canadian Blood Services (CBS) plans to inquire Health Canada to surface imaginable blood donors based connected higher-risk intersexual behaviors alternatively than connected sex oregon sexuality. The attack is akin to what’s already followed successful galore different countries, and it’s 1 that advocates successful the U.S. are besides proposing.

The submission to petition the alteration ''is imminent," says CBS spokesperson Catherine Lewis, who expects the petition to beryllium finalized earlier the extremity of the year. Health Canada, the national section liable for the nationalist national wellness of Canadians, needs to o.k. it. "If approved, we'd question to instrumentality expediently,” Lewis says. “We'd apt request respective months to marque strategy changes and bid staff."

The Canadian connection follows a akin alteration successful attack successful the United Kingdom. On World Blood Donor Day, June 14, National Health Service Blood and Transplant launched a caller policy, with eligibility to donate based connected a much idiosyncratic appraisal alternatively than connected a hazard assigned to a colonisation oregon group. Now, deferrals are based connected behaviors known to transportation a higher hazard of intersexual infection.

After the U.K. argumentation change, a position published this twelvemonth successful The New England Journal of Medicine suggested the U.S should travel suit.

"We judge this updated argumentation should service arsenic a telephone to enactment for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reevaluate and rewrite its ain deferral policies for imaginable humor donors," the authors wrote.

Under existent guidelines, a 3-month deferral play is imposed connected men aft their past intersexual brushwood with different man. While men who person enactment with men bash person a higher prevalence of HIV than others successful the population, the guidelines successful the U.S. neglect to see idiosyncratic behaviors, the authors wrote, including those of different groups that tin beryllium conscionable arsenic risky.

The U.S. guidelines adjacent exclude cheery and bisexual men who support a debased hazard of contracting sexually transmitted infections -- specified arsenic monogamous joined cheery men -- portion not deferring others who prosecute successful high-risk practices.

The U.K. argumentation follows the pb of France, Argentina, and Brazil, the position authors wrote. Those countries person idiosyncratic assessments oregon nary restrictions, they said.

New Approach Details

The displacement successful Canada is welcomed by many, including Nathan Lachowsky, PhD, an subordinate prof of nationalist wellness and societal argumentation astatine the University of Victoria. He and others person been advocating for the ''removal of the MSM (men who person enactment with men) circumstantial prohibition for implicit a decade," helium says.

Currently, successful Canada, men who person enactment with men are eligible to donate if it has been much than 3 months since their past intersexual interaction with a man.

If the alteration to behavior-based screening is approved, Lachowsky says, ''there volition beryllium caller questions they are asked during the screening process."

While Lewis says those questions volition beryllium released soon, Lachowsky says they are expected to inquire astir details specified arsenic narration status, the fig of partners, caller partners, and types of intersexual practices.

Besides an extremity to what Lachowsky and others presumption arsenic discrimination, "we expect that this alteration volition mean that determination are a fig of caller donors to lend blood."

This anticipated summation successful the donor pool, helium says, would see not lone cheery and bisexual men, ''but besides others who stayed distant from donation due to the fact that of the favoritism that was successful place."

In his research, Lachowsky has recovered that cheery and bisexual men are consenting to donate humor if they are deemed eligible. When helium surveyed 39 men, astir said they were low-risk, were consenting donors, and would ''gain restitution and civic pridefulness from donation."

Some cited feelings of favoritism from the existent policy.

U.S. Efforts to Change Policy

In the U.S., the latest FDA guidance calls for a 3-month intersexual abstinence play earlier donating humor for each men who person enactment with men. The argumentation applies to men joined to different men arsenic good arsenic 2 men successful a mutually monogamous relationship. A pistillate who has had enactment during the past 3 months with a antheral who has had enactment with different antheral successful the past 3 months is besides not eligible to donate.

But an FDA survey is underway to find retired if assessing idiosyncratic hazard alternatively of mandating a broad deferral volition support the nation's humor proviso conscionable arsenic safe. Called the ADVANCE Study (Assessing Donor Variability and New Concepts successful Eligibility), its extremity is to enroll 2,000 men astatine 8 survey locations.

But enrollment has been slower than expected, owed partially to COVID-19 restrictions that bounds opportunities to scope retired astatine assemblage events for volunteers, says Brian Custer, PhD, the main researcher for the survey and vice president of probe and technological programs astatine the Vitalant Research Institute. With events specified arsenic PRIDE and different societal events canceled, it has been harder to find radical to instrumentality portion successful the study, helium says.

Yet the survey is inactive owed to beryllium finished by mid-2022, Custer says. No aboriginal analyses person been completed yet.

Andrew Goldstein, PhD, an subordinate prof of molecular, cell, and developmental biology and urology astatine UCLA, who is taking portion successful the ADVANCE Study, says: ''The existent guidelines are discriminatory and hurtful." There are captious humor shortages, ''so it is frustrating that steadfast donors are turned distant based connected an outdated rule."

Filling a Need

Lifting the restrictions would mean much humor donors astatine a clip erstwhile humor supplies are running highly low. On Nov. 26, Blood Services Canada issued a telephone for donors, saying it needs to capable 38,000 appointments by Jan. 4 to support inventory.

In the U.S., a terrible humor shortage continues, according to the American Red Cross. In precocious October, the Red Cross said that donor turnout had reached the lowest level of the year, and that September and October had the lowest nationalist humor inventory levels successful much than a decade.