The ban's being lifted...because the PC Brigade decided the rule could be discriminatory and might breach equality legislation. WTF??!! Ever heard of "the greater good"?There's a catch though: gay men will only be permitted to donate if they haven't 'done the wild thang' for a decade. This 10-year pause ensures those unaware they have HIV don't pass it on accidentally. But the system's based on trust (!!!): there're no checks that donors are actually telling the truth and around 7% of sexually active UK gays are thought to give blood despite the ban. Donated blood is screened for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, but a tiny number of infections are missed because there can be a time lag before they show themselves.
UK gay rights campaigners pushed for the ban to be lifted, seemingly with scant regard for public safety, saying many homosexuals are in long-term monogamous relationships, have been celibate for years or practise safe sex (recent NZ statistics however show that's not the case here).
USA still bans any man who's had sex with another man since 1977 from ever donating blood. In NZ, gays can't give blood for five years following sex with or without a condom with another man.
I find it ironic that I'm barred from giving blood. Before my OE, I had donated 32 units of blood, and looked forward to continuing that when I came home. However on my return I was told, because I'd been in the UK during the Mad Cow Disease (CJD) scare, I might have contracted something which may manifest itself in 40 years from now...the blood bank has no CJD detection test so I'm persona non grata.
Ah well, I'm often told I'm mad as a meat axe anyway: if I live another 40 years, I'll be quite lucky!
1 comment:
I have a friend who can't donate blood because she lived there during the Mad Cow era.. she was a breast feed baby at the time... aparently she was also chewing on great lumps of steak too!!!!!
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