The Establishment and Revision of the Blood Donation Deferral Period Policy

Following the unfortunate tragedy that was the tainting of the Canadian blood supply that subsequently infected thousands with HIV, as well as hepatitis C, came adaptions to blood donation polices and stricter regulations, namely the indefinite blood-donation deferral period policy for gay and bisexual male donors. In 1997, the first implemented policy denied blood donations from any man who had ever had sexual relations with a man since 1977. In 2003, Hema-Quebec had estimated that the number of donations would rise by 1.3 percent if the indefinite deferral period were diminished to a one-year deferral period instead. The following year, Hema-Quebec’s Hemovigilance committee was asked to reconsider the policy in question  to reduce it to a one-year deferral, however the committee voted to maintain the lifetime exclusion policy. This policy was upheld until 2013, when it was changed to a five-year deferral period, and finally to a one-year deferral period in 2016. These revisions were advocated by researchers and activists who perceived this implemented policies as homophobic, discriminatory and unreasonable. Subsequently, the attitudes and views of gay and bisexual men (men who have sex with men or “MSM”) concerning these deferral policies is taken into consideration and studied through use of in-depth interviews conducted by researchers, in an attempt to further their understanding on MSM’s acceptance of these regulations, finding that most participants were opposed to any deferral period, and that “blood donation policies should be based on more up-to-date scientific evidence concerning risk factor assessment and HIV testing” (Grace et al., 2019).

References

Grace, D., Gaspar, M., Lessard, D., Klassen, B., Brennan, D. J., Adam, B. D., Jollimore, J., Lachowsky, N. J., & Hart, T. A. (2019). Gay and bisexual men’s views on reforming blood donation policy in Canada: a qualitative study. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 772. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7123-4

Wainberg, M. A., Shuldiner, T., Dahl, K., & Gilmore, N. (2010). Reconsidering the lifetime deferral of blood donation by men who have sex with men. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 182(12), 1321–1324. https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.091476