">Hiv Virus | Time To Drop Ban On Gay Blood Donors, Experts Say

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A patient has a blood sample drawn for a test in November of 2008. Randall Moore / The Globe and Mail

Leading HIV-AIDS researchers call for Canada to reform ‘unfair’ policy in medical journal

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Helen Branswell

Toronto — The Canadian Press
Published on Tuesday, May. 25, 2010 4:37PM EDT
Last updated on Tuesday, May. 25, 2010 4:58PM EDT

It is time to drop a discriminatory policy that bars gay men from donating blood in Canada, several leading HIV-AIDS researchers said in an article published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

They suggested the policy, which dates back to a time when there was no effective way to screen donated blood for the HIV virus, should be modified to permit gay men in long-term, monogamous relationships to donate blood.

“We’re not asking for all gay men to be able to give blood. If someone’s a gay man and promiscuous, we say `Exclude them.’ We’re trying to be balanced and moderate here,” said lead author Dr. Mark Wainberg, head of AIDS research at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital and the McGill University AIDS Centre.

“The current policy is one that discriminates against all gay men in a permanent way and that seems a bit … not only unfair, but it seems to be counter to the best interests of the blood agencies that chronically encounter shortages.”

Dr. Wainberg and his co-authors suggest Canadian Blood Services and Hema-Quebec should