Ban on gay blood donors examined by medics

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service’s deferral policy, which imposes a lifelong ban on blood donations from any man who has ever had sex with another man, is being examined at a Royal College of Physicians conference.

The conference is hearing submissions from representatives of countries including Spain, France, and Australia, which reviewed their deferral policy and lifted the ban; and Germany, which kept a lifelong ban in place following a review.

German speaker Margerethe Heiden co-authored a report advising “the safety of transfusion recipients should be the first priority”, outweighing societal concerns about discrimination.

However Brian Sheehan, of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, said the ban was outdated and discriminatory.

“This is one last organ of the State that imposes a non-evidence-based restriction on gay and bisexual men, sending them the message that somehow they are unacceptable,” he said.

“This message causes a risk to be borne by gay men in society: Young LGBT people are twice as likely to self-harm and three times as likely to attempt suicide as their heterosexual counterparts. Some of the presenters here have spoken of a less than one in a million additional risk from lifting the ban.”

However, IBTS medical and scientific director William Murphy said the ban “may still provide a degree of protection; the prevalence of HIV and Hepatitis C is twice as high within the MSM [men who have sex with men] category”.

He said a balance has to be struck based on the sound scientific evidence being presented to the conference: “I have no mandate to increase risk. My job as a physician is to look after recipients of blood transfusions so they’re not exposed, while obviously in my personal life I want to live in a community that doesn’t discriminate against any group of people.”

The Irish Haemophiliac Society is also represented at the conference, and Dr Murphy said people need to understand that “the reason the haemophiliac society is so reticent on this is that they have counted coffins because of this issue”.

Due to a 10-day window where an individual can have contracted HIV and still test negative, transfusion services rely on a self-reporting questionnaire filled out by anyone wishing to donate blood. There is no statistical evidence to suggest that MSM are any less likely to self-report accurately than any other group.

The conference follows last year’s High Court challenge by Tomás Henegan, a student from Co Galway, who took an action against the IBTS on the basis the ban applied against him after he disclosed sexual activity with another man is “discriminatory, disproportionate and contrary to EU law”.

Dr Murphy said the IBTS would seek a deferral on the grounds of progress made by the conference when the case appears before the High Court next Thursday, but said the decision to review the policy at this point is “not driven by one case,” while acknowledging the IBTS operates in a “healthcare system with limited resources.”

The IBTS will define its future policy in a submission to the Department of Health in June. Health Minister Leo Varadkar has previously voiced his support for a year-long deferral rather than an all-out reversal of restrictions for MSM. A spokesman from Mr Varadkar’s office said that any future decision would be “based on the scientific and medical information available.”