Sunday, January 20, 2013

Gay blood, bad blood?

After the fight for acceptance, homosexuals embark on a new fight...

Raghav (named changed) was a regular blood donor since his college days, and had once also donated blood to help his dad recover from a critical health situation. But one day his application form for blood donation was rejected because it had a tick marked on the question which asked if the donor has had sexual relations with a person of the same sex after 1977. Disappointed on being refused on grounds of being gay, Raghu decided not to donate blood anymore.

After legalising homosexual relationships in India, the various other laws attached to it are in a state of flux, and one of it is the ban on bisexuals or gay men from donating their blood. This prohibition was first introduced in 1977 by the Food and Drug Association, USA, to combat the HIV pandemic, which was rampant at that time. The first signs of AIDS were observed in gay men in the early 1980s, which led to researches that concluded that unprotected anal sex was a major factor intensifying this epidemic. This had led the FDA to impose a ban on homosexuals from donating blood.

Addressing this issue in context to the Indian scenario, Dr. Anju of Rotary Blood Bank says, “Till now, we have been following the rules that exist in most countries. We have a clause according to which we can’t take blood from those involved with multiple partners, that includes both homosexuals and heterosexuals.” On questioning if people in India reveal such intimate details, she said, “Well, we haven’t encountered many such cases and I’m sure that there are many who don’t reveal such details while donating blood. So, all we can do is take as much precaution as we can from our end. But we do not take blood from homosexuals because the probability of them carrying HIV and being involved with multiple partners is much more. So that’s a precautionary measure we follow.”


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPMMalay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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