■ Lorely Burt MP questions policy on blood donation by gays

LONDON,  June 19, 2006  –  Health Minister Patricia Hewitt has been challenged by Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Women and Equality, Lorely Burt MP, over the continued complete ban on gay and bisexual men, and one-year ban on their straight or bisexual female partners, donating blood.

The MP for Solihull is also asking how would-be donors who are rejected are treated.

Ms. Lorely Burt (Solihull)  has tabled three written questions in Parliament on the subject:

■  To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many complaints her Department received from men who have had sex with men that they were treated disrespectfully by blood donation staff in 2005.

■  To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how often her Department reviews medical evidence which forms the basis for blood donation rules that (a) permanently exclude men who have had sex with men and (b) temporarily exclude female sexual partners of those men; when the last review of the medical evidence was carried out; and when the next review is scheduled to take place.

■  To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if she will ask the National Blood Service to issue guidance to its staff aimed at ensuring that men who have sex with men are treated with respect when they are told they are unable to give blood.

“Anyone who has ever given blood should be applauded for their invaluable service saving the lives of others,” said Lorely Burt.

“The Government needs to look very carefully, however, at whether the current exclusion criteria are the most fair and effective way of ruling out individuals at high risk of HIV and other infections from giving blood.

“This ban can only be justified on medical evidence that inclusion of these individuals substantially increases the transmission risk of HIV and other infections.  The Government must review this evidence on a regular basis, considering all the latest screening tests that may make the ban redundant.

“It seems perverse that the current criteria allow a woman to give blood even if she has had hundreds of sexual partners, but exclude a man who has had safe sexual relations with another man only once many years ago.”