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It's not equality, it's blood

Op-ed: Ban on accepting blood donations from gay men has nothing to do with equal rights

During her first week in office, Health Minister Yael German rushed to inform the public that she instructed ministry staff to reconsider the ban on accepting blood donations from gay men.

 

While there is no argument that the LGBT community in Israel deserves equal rights, which must be promoted and protected, it seems that the new and enthusiastic health minister has taken her mission one step too far, even before studying the issue thoroughly. A blood transfusion is one of the most dangerous procedures in medicine. To reduce the risk, donors of blood are also screened for signs and symptoms of disease and for activities that might put them at risk for infection. In addition, some populations are prohibited from donating blood because they tend to have a relatively high prevalence of HIV and liver infections.

 

Men who have sex with men (MSM) have been prohibited from donating blood for years because they are considered to be at high risk for HIV/AIDS since the AIDS pandemic was first identified in gay communities. This directive is based on the fact that the past few years have seen a steady increase, in Israel and the world over, in the number of gay men contracting HIV, which causes AIDS. Actually, apart from the immigrants who moved to Israel from AIDS-ridden countries, members of the gay community are at the highest risk of contracting HIV and infecting others.

 

Health Ministry data indicate that 160 of the 450 people who were diagnosed with HIV in 2011 were gay. Fifty of those diagnosed with HIV were heterosexuals, and less than 50 were intravenous drug users.

 

Blood units collected in Israel are carefully examined, but it takes time before the HIV virus can be detected in tests. Reducing the risks involved in blood transfusions calls for the careful selection of potential donors while taking into consideration the various risk groups they belong to. The proof of the effectiveness of the process is in the numbers. Since the disease was discovered in the 1980s, there were only two cases in Israel in which a patient was infected with HIV as a result of a blood transfusion.

 

The health system did the right thing by determining that people who belong to groups where there is a high risk of passing on diseases through blood donations are prohibited from donating blood. It is not because these people are second class citizens or because their blood is worth less. It is because any other option is simply too dangerous. Undermining the foundations of the process which led to such small infection percentages in order to promote the LGBT community's right to equality constitutes a major violation of the more important right of the general public to life and health.

 

The question of who is allowed to donate blood is a purely medical one and is not supposed to reflect a liberal or egalitarian worldview.

 

The Health Ministry is not a platform for the promotion of social values; it is the institution that is responsible for the Israeli public's health. Minister German should address the health system's real problems before investing her time in issues that do not contribute to the quality of medical care in Israel.

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.02.13, 10:23
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