By Will Stos
Blood: it’s in you to give. The Canadian Blood Services’ (CBS) slogan has been part of an unqualified success in reversing a 10-year decline in blood donations.
According to Derek Mellon, a CBS spokesperson, since using the new slogan four years ago the amount of blood shipped to hospitals has grown by 15 per cent; 70,000 people became new blood donors.
But like most advertising some conditions apply. An examination of the fine print reveals a more accurate slogan would be “Blood: it’s in (most of) you to give.”
To protect Canada’s blood supply from contamination, CBS restricts donations from anyone known to carry a transmittable disease and members of certain “high risk” groups.
Potential donors who have engaged in certain types of sexual activity or drug use or who have lived in parts of the world with an outdated health care system or high rate of infection are members of a “permanent deferrals” group people who will never be permitted to donate blood under current guidelines.
Born out of the tragic blood contamination scandal of the mid-1980s to early 1990s when tens of thousands of Canadians were infected with HIV and hepatitis C after receiving blood products or transfusions, Health Canada, CBS and its Quebec counterpart Héma-Quebec have adhered to a strict better-safe-than sorry attitude when collecting donations.
Most of the precautions the agency has taken are understandable and commendable; high-risk behaviour not only endangers a donor’s life but threatens hundreds or thousands of blood recipients who may come into contact with tainted blood.
But many potential donors who may otherwise be perfectly healthy and willing to donate are being swept away by the blanket coverage against at-risk groups.
CBS, for example, will not accept any blood from a man who has engaged in sex with another man even one time since 1977. The year 1977 is important since it is when scientists estimate blood-borne HIV first entered human blood streams.
Citing statistics from Donald Sutherland, a doctor at Health Canada’s Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Mellon says research shows that between 1996 and 1999, 60 per cent of the number of persons with HIV in Canada were men who have sex with men.
Moreover, Mellon says Sutherland’s data has indicated that the rate of infection among men who have sex with men is increasing in Canada and in various other parts of the world.
“It’s important to understand the Canadian Blood Services has a responsibility to ensure the optimal safety of the blood supply for all blood recipients,” says Mellon. “Canadian Blood Services believes that donating blood is a privilege not a right, and this is why we have in place stringent screening criteria.”
But if donating blood truly is a privilege, it must be one that is accorded to all people whose history indicates their blood is safe, rather than simply exemptions based on perceived risk.
Ron Chaplin, chair of the Ottawa Council on AIDS, says CBS screening criteria is “intellectually dishonest in its approach” and may be providing “a false sense of security” for heterosexual blood donors and blood product recipients.
Chaplin says the CBS assumes promiscuity among all gay men, something they do not currently accord to heterosexual donors.
And although heterosexual donors are given permanent deferrals if they have ever had sex for money, promiscuity among heterosexuals is apparently no cause for concern. Conversely, gay or bisexual men who are in long-term, monogamous relationships or who practice safe sex are not acceptable candidates.
John Fisher, executive director of Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere, says this suggests “all same-sex activity is unsafe activity,” which he says is irresponsible.
Despite these concerns CBS is not alone in creating these guidelines for blood collection; Health Canada and groups which rely heavily on blood products, including the Hemophilia Society of Canada, also have an intense interest in keeping the blood supply safe.
It is also essential not to lose sight of the tremendous importance of blood donation. Mellon says each unit of blood benefits as many as four recipients; but despite the positive growth in donations during the past four years, national demand also grew by 6.8 per cent. More demand is predicted for the future.
With this in mind, Canadians who are able to donate would be well advised to visit their local blood donor clinic and roll up a sleeve to give an essential part of life to people who need it.
But they should also carry a message to the clinics.
Concerned people should tell clinic staff, CBS executives, and their member of Parliament to re-examine their guidelines and take advantage of some of the 18.8 per cent of donors at clinics that are turned away every year and countless more who have learned not to bother even making a trip.
If the CBS took advantage of all responsible Canadians, including gay and bisexual male Canadians, who want to respond to the campaign which asks, “if you could give blood, would you?” the future strength of the blood supply could be assured.
As it stands, too many Canadians eager to help save a life arrive only to be turned away.