Question:
Like most
Americans, I was shocked and disgusted by the horror perpetrated in New York
in September 11. As an openly gay policeman in Oregon, I wanted to donate
blood with my fellow peace officers to the Red Cross as a sympathetic gesture
and as a patriotic symbol. When I went to donate, I was turned away because
the Red Cross will not accept blood from openly gay men, except for “research
purposes,” which I guess means AIDS.
The rejection did not sit well with me because I play safe, am frequently tested, and I thought that all blood was screened anyway for HIV with reliable tests. Are there any good reasons for rejecting my donation, or is the Red Cross’s policy a leftover from the early and scarier days of AIDS?
Answer:
It
is sad that we are not welcomed to give blood, but there are some reasons
behind their decision. I thought I’d go to the American
Red Cross site and find the screening conditions that would probably apply
to most of us. The conditions that certainly eliminate me (and probably every
other guy surfing this page) were:
“You should not give blood if you have: ...
- Done something
that puts you at risk for becoming infected with HIV, the virus that cause
AIDS: ...
- If you are
a male, had sex even once with another male since 1977; or within the last
12 months, given a female money or drugs to have sex with you.”
All blood is
tested for HIV, hepatitis B and C, and syphilis. The problem is that most
of the testing is to determine whether the donor shows signs of having reacted
to these illnesses.
When we are
first exposed to an agent, it takes a period of time before the immune system
realizes that an infection has occured. Once it identifies a problem it reacts
in various ways (antibodies for example). It can take awhile before this fight
against the infection can occur, so technically you could be infected and
yet the testing may not show that your body has been exposed.
[Please forgive
the following poor example.]
Let’s say
that you go on one of your infrequent drunken sprawls and in the midst of
your 12 pack you blurringly see a bear of your dreams and end up getting blazingly
fucked before waking up to see the guy hasn’t used a condom and later
not even being able to remember his name or dick size. Let’s also say
that he was unfortunately HIV positive and he ripped your ass wide open enough
to cause some tears allowing the virus to enter your system.
Technically at that point you’ve been exposed and can become infected with HIV. If tested at this point you will likely be determined to be negative for HIV, though it’s quite possible that a few viral particles are already starting to circulate in your bloodstream.
If you gave
blood at that point in time, the blood screening tests may not detect the
HIV and if that blood is given to another person they could become infected
with HIV as well.
[End of poor
example.]
It’s these
theoretical scenarios that keep us from donating. It’s also unfortunate
that some of us lie (either blatantly or by silence) about our sexual activities
and HIV status. The 2 brains located in the scrotum often overcome the brain
above the shoulders. Sometimes our testosterone gets us and other people in
trouble.
Until a perfect test is developed, this ban will likely remain in effect. I’m sad that I cannot donate blood. The good news is that this doesn’t prevent us from trying to help in other ways.
BearDoc
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