The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is to hold expert meetings and public hearings this year to determine whether to lift a ban on blood donations from men who have sex with men (MSM), as diagnoses of HIV in Taiwan have fallen.
The current version of the Blood Donors’ Health Standards (捐血者健康標準) have been in effect since 2006. Article 5 states that MSM are banned from being blood donors “in perpetuity.”
The ministry in 2018 mulled changing “in perpetuity” to allowing men who have not had intercourse with another man in the previous five years.
Photo: Liao Hsueh-ju, Taipei Times
However, the mulled changes were halted, as the public was unconvinced that it was “unsafe sexual behavior” and not homosexual contact that was the main cause of HIV spread, the ministry said.
Standard practice for blood donations is to screen potential donors through health surveys, interviews and hemoglobin tests while there is still time to set aside or dispose of problematic blood, but the 11-day window between contraction of HIV and its detectability can circumvent these safeguards.
With other health agencies, including in the UK and France, relaxing their standards, and the American Red Cross in August last year announcing that it would accept blood donations from MSM, the CDC had said that it would mull lifting its bans if the number of new HIV cases dropped below 1,000 per year.
CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑惠) said that the ministry is honoring its pledge, as last year there were 940 new HIV cases.
The previous attempt to amend the regulations showed that the issue exceeds the parameters of science and medicine, so the CDC is to hold seminars and public hearings involving experts and civic groups, Tseng said.
The preliminary procedures would help the CDC gauge public acceptance of the planned changes, he said.
The CDC has budgeted NT$750,000 to run the seminars, with the winners of procurement bids obliged to hold at least two workshops or public hearings before Nov. 30 titled: “Adjusting restrictions on blood donations for MSM,” he said.
Each event must have at least 30 participants, he said, adding that the groups that secure the bids must provide the CDC with printed meeting minutes, subjects discussed and opinions shared, as well as analyses of policy adjustment suggestions by the end of the year.
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