Health Canada’s recent announcement to end the ban on blood donations from men and transgender women who have had sex with men in the last three months will still discriminate because it will continue to bar individuals from donating if they’ve had sex with a person who is HIV-positive in the last 12 months despite the fact that many HIV positive people have an undetectable viral load due to medication according to health Canada and therefore can’t transmit the virus.
Critics say will be a “significant” number of individuals who will continue to be barred under the new blood donor policy, set to take effect by Sept. 30. Advocates say the new policy — championed as a long-overdue milestone by federal politicians including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — will still effectively ban many men who have sex with men, while continuing to perpetuate stigmas about them and people who live with HIV.
The initial annoucement of removing the ban really exciting because it sounded like they were making meaningful changes to stop discriminating against gay men and other people, but when you actually looked into the way they were changing it, it seems like they’re really whitewashing the same policy.”
The new rules prohibit all individuals — regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity — from donating if they’ve had anal sex with a new or multiple partners in the last three months. Under the new policy. Those who were allowed to give blood before will no longer able to give blood and will still bar many from donating blood under the new policy.
All blood donations are tested for diseases including HIV and Hepatitis B and C. The blood agency says there’s a window of about nine days after an HIV infection when a person may transmit the virus and it is not picked up by testing, hence the need for screening questions.
Canadian Blood Services wants to now also scrap the lifetime ban on sex workers. The blood-donation service has now recommended to Health Canada that it abolish the lifetime ban on donation by people who have taken money or drugs in exchange for sex.
The ban, introduced 45 years ago, is set to be replaced by a one-year “deferral” after paid sex work. Canadian Blood Services said it would be prepared to recommend that Health Canada reduce the time sex workers have to wait before donating blood to less than a year, but wanted to make changes incrementally. The length of time gay men were banned from giving blood was gradually reduced before being scrapped completely last month.
Catherine Lewis from Canadian Blood Services, said it had made the request to Health Canada to end the lifelong ban on sex workers donating blood in the past few weeks, having done research to ensure the recommendation would keep the blood supply safe. She said the review was part of a drive to make sure blood donation policies were more inclusive and equitable.
“Right now we are looking at a year but we will coninue to look at it in future. It doesn’t end if it gets reduced to one year,” she added. The current lifetime ban on sex workers giving blood also extends to people who have had sex with a sex worker or exchanged money or drugs for sex. This policy is also being reviewed.
Justin Trudeau’s Liberals promised to scrap the ban on gay men donating blood during the 2015 election campaign. But it took years and $5 million worth of research into safety before it was recommended to Health Canada.
Canadian Blood Services, which runs the blood donation program, indicated it was confident the ban on sex workers giving blood could happen by the fall if approved by Health Canada. The blood service is moving toward basing screening on higher-risk sexual behaviour such as anal sex.
In 1985, in what became known as the Tainted Blood Scandal, over 2,000 Canadians contracted HIV from blood products collected by the Canadian Red Cross (the predecessor to CBS and Héma-Quebec). This occurred because the Canadian Red Cross failed to adequately test and screen donors for blood viruses – with much of the infected plasma coming from American prison populations (which at the time sourced a large percentage of donated blood in Canada).
In the aftermath of the Tainted Blood Scandal, the Canadian Red Cross began testing all blood products for viruses such as HIV. But also born out of this scandal was the introduction of a lifetime ban on blood donations from men who have sex with men – a policy which remained in place from 1992 to 2013 – during which time CBS inherited the responsibility for administering blood donations.
By the end of September, all potential donors will be asked if they have had new or multiple sexual partners in the last three months, no matter their gender or sexual orientation.
If any potential donor replies yes, they would then be asked whether they have had anal sex with any of those partners. If they have, they would need to wait three months since that activity before donating blood.
The blood agency believes asking about sexual behaviour will allow it to more reliably assess the risk of infections such as HIV that can be transmitted through transfusions. All donated blood is tested and screened before it is given to patients.
Imtiaz Popat 