{"id":150676,"date":"2022-04-29T07:54:43","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T11:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=150676"},"modified":"2022-04-29T07:54:43","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T11:54:43","slug":"canadian-blood-services-to-end-blood-ban-for-men-who-have-sex-with-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/canadian-blood-services-to-end-blood-ban-for-men-who-have-sex-with-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Blood Services to end blood ban for men who have sex with men"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CBC News: As Canadian Blood Services moves to end its policy that restricts men who have sex with men from donating blood for three months after being sexually active, an advocate who fought to change it says the new policy is still discriminatory.\u00a0CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP GROUP<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>

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According to the new policy, which has been\u00a0approved by Health Canada and first reported by The Canadian Press, all 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.<\/p>\n

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Instead of being asked about gender or sexuality, potential donors will be screened on higher-risk sexual behaviour, such as anal sex. If the individual has had anal sex with those partners, then they will need to wait three months since that activity before donating blood.<\/p>

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Christopher Karas, who filed a human rights complaint against Health Canada to remove the deferral, says the policy still stigmatizes gay, bisexual men, and some transgender people.<\/p>

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\u201cI want to be excited about this news. I really do. I think that this is in some way historic in that we\u2019re seeing the end of the deferral,\u201d he said in an interview with CBC News.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I know that a lot of gay, bi men and trans people will still be barred by this policy, so I think it\u2019s a bit unfortunate that the government has decided this is the approach they want to take,\u201d said Karas.<\/p>

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The new policy will be implemented no later than Sept. 30. The agency says asking about sexual behaviour, rather than sexual orientation, will allow it to more reliably assess the risk of infections such as HIV that can be transmitted through infusions.<\/p>\n

It also says the shift comes after \u201ccountless hours\u201d of work by LGBTQ and other groups, who have long advocated for a change in policy.<\/p>

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Anal sex is high risk factor, says doctor<\/h2>\n

Karas\u00a0notes there are no questions about vaginal sex in the questionnaire, even though it is one of the primary modes of HIV infection.<\/p>

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\u201cThey won\u2019t be screening for vaginal sex, they won\u2019t be screening for condom use or any other risk behaviour that they should be screening for,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they\u2019re saying is that gay and bi men and transgender [people]\u2026 are engaging primarily in anal sex. They\u2019re stigmatizing us through this new policy. That\u2019s what they\u2019re saying with this new policy,\u201d said Karas.<\/p>\n

Dr. Graham Sher, CEO of Canadian Blood Services, says the policy is based upon extensive domestic and international research.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe evidence is really clear that anal sex is still a significantly higher risk factor for transmission of diseases, such as HIV. Then it\u2019s vaginal sex or oral sex,\u201d Sher said.<\/p>\n

When asked about why individuals who use condoms can\u2019t be exempt\u00a0from the deferral, Sher says it\u2019s difficult for donors to recall with accuracy whether they used a condom for every sexual interaction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile it is a very important public health measure and a safe sexual practice to do, over a body of time, it\u2019s not the primary risk factor. Evidence speaks to anal sex as the risk factor,\u201d said Sher.<\/p>\n

Monitoring research<\/h2>\n

Individuals who use PrEP and PEP \u2014 medication to prevent HIV infections \u2014 must also wait four months since they were last on the medication to donate blood.<\/p>\n

Sher says it\u2019s true that individuals taking PrEP and PEP have a lower risk of transmitting infections through sexual intercourse and they might have a low viral load, but that doesn\u2019t necessarily apply to blood, especially for people who might be getting half a litre of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know that it can\u2019t be transmitted through a transfusion where there may be enough viruses in the bag of blood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sher says Canadian Blood Services will continue to work with companies that manufacture tests for blood samples looking for diseases like HIV and Hepatitis B.<\/p>\n

\u201cCBS will continue to evaluate the science and the evidence and continue to modernize our policy as new evidence comes along,\u201d said Sher.<\/p>\n

\u2018Should\u2019ve been done 10 years ago:\u2019 Prime Minister<\/h2>\n

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said\u00a0his government welcomes the decision and \u201cit\u2019s been a long time coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe current approach was discriminatory and wrong. This is a significant milestone for moving forward on both the safety of our blood supply, but also, non-discriminatory blood practices,\u201d Trudeau said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Previously, the federal government has tried to block Kara\u2019s court challenge that argues Health Canada is discriminating against gay men by overseeing a ban that prevents men who have sex with other men from donating blood.<\/p>\n

When pressed by reporters on whether Health Canada played a complicit role in the discriminatory policy, Trudeau said scientific evidence was needed and didn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis should\u2019ve been done 10 years ago, 15 years ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the research, science, investment to be able to ensure that our blood supply continues to be safe, based on data, based on research, simply wasn\u2019t done by any previous government,\u201d the prime minister said.<\/p>\n

Trudeau said the federal government invested more than $5 million into the research and funded a dozen studies to arrive at the outcome.\u00a0CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP GROUP<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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CBC News: As Canadian Blood Services moves to end its policy that restricts men who have sex with men from donating blood for three months after being sexually active, an advocate who fought to change it says the new policy is still discriminatory.\u00a0CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP GROUP According to the new policy, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":150677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional"],"yoast_head":"\nCanadian Blood Services to end blood ban for men who have sex with men - Antigua News Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/canadian-blood-services-to-end-blood-ban-for-men-who-have-sex-with-men\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Canadian Blood Services to end blood ban for men who have sex with men\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CBC News: As Canadian Blood Services moves to end its policy that restricts men who have sex with men from donating blood for three months after being sexually active, an advocate who fought to change it says the new policy is still discriminatory.\u00a0CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP GROUP According to the new policy, which […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/canadian-blood-services-to-end-blood-ban-for-men-who-have-sex-with-men\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Antigua News Room\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/antiguanewsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-29T11:54:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Blood-Donation.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"739\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AntiguaNewsRoom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AntiguaNewsRoom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/canadian-blood-services-to-end-blood-ban-for-men-who-have-sex-with-men\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/canadian-blood-services-to-end-blood-ban-for-men-who-have-sex-with-men\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Editor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#\/schema\/person\/36cac05ef6398fe56ae3e6317f8535c5\"},\"headline\":\"Canadian Blood Services to end blood ban for men who have sex with men\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-29T11:54:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-29T11:54:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/canadian-blood-services-to-end-blood-ban-for-men-who-have-sex-with-men\/\"},\"wordCount\":900,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/canadian-blood-services-to-end-blood-ban-for-men-who-have-sex-with-men\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/mlavawteztbj.i.optimole.com\/w:739\/h:425\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Blood-Donation.jpeg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Regional\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/canadian-blood-services-to-end-blood-ban-for-men-who-have-sex-with-men\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/canadian-blood-services-to-end-blood-ban-for-men-who-have-sex-with-men\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/canadian-blood-services-to-end-blood-ban-for-men-who-have-sex-with-men\/\",\"name\":\"Canadian Blood Services to end blood ban for men who have sex with men - 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