In 62% of cases, HIV is transmitted through men who have sex with men, and 23% through heterosexual sex. Nationally 7.9% of gay and bisexual men have HIV, compared with 0.14% of the general adult population. “The strategy builds on what might go wrong rather than averages, and that’s why Australia has a good safety reputation,” he says. The Kirby Institute’s Professor John Kaldor said that while current tests could detect HIV less than two weeks after acquisition, Lifeblood and the TGA took a deliberately conservative approach. A submission around men on HIV medication is being considered by the TGA. “We’d like as many Australians as possible to donate blood,” she says. The short shelf life of blood - 42 days - makes quarantining and retesting blood not feasible. The spokeswoman added that although every donation was tested for a range of infectious diseases, tests can’t pick up recently acquired infections. This data is eight years old, collected before the widespread availability of HIV prevention and suppression medication. She cited data from the Kirby Institute which found monogamous men who engaged in sex with men have on average a 50 times higher risk of acquiring HIV than people in a heterosexual relationship.
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“Lifeblood is unable to determine the monogamous status of a donor’s partner,” she said.
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The timeframe for donating blood, plasma and platelets will be reduced to three months from next year following a submission made by Lifeblood to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).Ī spokeswoman for Lifeblood told Crikey that information from a potential donor about their partner’s sexual behaviour may not be reliable. The restrictions apply to those in “high risk” categories and include men and transgender people who have sex with men, women who have sex with men who have had sex with men, people who have had sex with an injecting drug user, and sex workers.Ĭourt brings LGBTIQ people in under the civil rights umbrella and leaves Trump out in the cold Read More > What’s the logic?įollowing the HIV/AIDs crisis, LGBTIQ community members were barred from donating blood until the turn of the century, when the deferral period was introduced. The new rules for tattooed Australians came into effect earlier this month as the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood tries to pull new donors - especially those who aren’t afraid of needles - into its centres amid dwindling donations during the pandemic.īut restrictions on LGBTIQ donors exclude up to a million Australians from giving blood - a rule, community members say, is based on prejudice instead of science.
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Inked-up Aussies can now walk straight from the tattoo parlour to a blood donation centre to give plasma. Gay men, on the other hand, still have to remain celibate for a year before donating - even if they’re married or monogamous.