People Before Profit welcomes the decision of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) and Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly to shorten the blood donation deferral period for men seeking men (MSM) from 12 months to 4 months. However, this is by no means an adequate solution. The discriminatory deferral period must be completely removed. [1]
This reduction is phase 1 of 2 for the IBTS. This first phase aims to replace their current paper-based health and lifestyle questionnaire with an election Self-Assessment Health History (SAHH) questionnaire [2]. In phase 2, the IBTS has announced plans to introduce an individual assessment process for donors, which they claim will aid in “making blood donations more inclusive”, in a style similar to the UK’s. For the Assessment of Individualised Risk (FAIR) system, there is no mention of a further reduction in this deferral period, nor is there mention of bringing the deferral period in line with the UK’s restrictions, which is three months with the same partner [3].
The deferral period as a whole was created as a compromise to the blanket ban IBTS had in place until 2017. [4] But make no mistake, this is still a policy rooted in homophobia from the dark days of the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. As a general policy, the IBTS screens blood from all donors for several sexually transmitted illnesses (STIs), including type 1 & 2 HIV. As such, there is no scientific basis behind the continued enforcement of the deferral policy for MSMs in place today. While our blood service has to import blood from the UK [5], we actively exclude individuals in Ireland from donating blood.
The reduction of the deferral period from 12 months to 4 months is a welcome improvement, but we need real equality and the complete removal of the deferral period.
[1] https://www.pbp.ie/policies/lgbtq-policy/
[3] https://www.blood.co.uk/who-can-give-blood/men-who-have-sex-with-men/
[4] https://www.thejournal.ie/gay-men-blood-ban-lifted-ireland-3188949-Jan2017/ [5] https://www.giveblood.ie/media/newsroom/press_releases/2021/ibts-imports-blood-from-the-nhsbt-for-a-second-time.docx
