More men from the gay and bisexual community will soon be able to donate blood, as the national blood services provider moves to change its screening process.
The New Zealand Blood Service has announced it is introducing changes to its sexual activity screening rules from May 4 – meaning all blood and plasma donors will be asked the same questions about recent sexual partners.
Potential donors will be asked whether they have had new or multiple sex partners in the past three months. If so, they will be asked whether they have had anal sex with those partners.
If the donor has had anal sex with new or multiple partners – regardless of the sex of their partner – they will have to wait three months before donating.
Currently, New Zealand men cannot donate blood if they have had anal or oral sex with another man in the past three months. This ban, with a three-month window, is to reduce the risk of passing undetected HIV on to a blood recipient.
The NZ Blood Service chief medical officer, Dr Sarah Morley, said it was a landmark decision that will allow for a more accurate and fairer assessment of all people wanting to give blood.
“For the first time, all donors are going to be asked the same questions about recent sexual activity,” she said.
“The benefits of that are that those questions help us replace current questions where we focus on men who have sex with men.
“So rather than focusing on an individual group, we can ask the same questions, and we can manage every donor in exactly the same way.”
Morley said it would also remove certain barriers and feelings among those men – acknowledging the rules that were often seen as discriminatory.
“We understand that blood donation has been a difficult topic for many reasons, but particularly for this reason, for men who have sex with other men.
“We’re aiming to effectively remove barriers that we know are not necessary any more, because they are not needed for blood safety.
“This new change means that our blood supply will be as safe, probably safer than ever.”
The move aligns New Zealand with overseas best practice and is underpinned by a strong body of international evidence, including from overseas blood services that have already made similar changes.
It also follows the Sex and Prevention of Transmission Study (Spots) study, led by the University of Auckland in 2022, which found that individualised assessments would not compromise the safety and quality of donor blood in a New Zealand context.
The interim lead of that study, Toy Scriamporn, said they knew the NZ Blood Service wanted to modernise but lacked New Zealand evidence to strengthen their case.
“We are delighted that SPOTS participants have helped improve New Zealand’s blood donor policy.”
The Blood Service said that according to Spots, the change would treble the number of gay, bisexual, takatāpui and other men who have sex with men who are eligible to donate.
The study also found that four out of five participants were interested in donating blood.
The Burnett Foundation – formerly known as the NZ Aids Foundation & Ending HIV NZ – has also welcomed the move.
Chief executive Liz Gibbs said ensuring that communities most affected by HIV are treated with fairness and respect is central to their work.
“At a personal level, it gives men who have long been excluded an opportunity to give back to their community.
“And ultimately, this change helps increase the number of potential donors, which can help cover shortages in blood supply.”
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