Ban on giving blood against human rights - gay group

A gay rights group is taking the New Zealand Blood Service to the Human Rights Commission over the ban on sexually active homosexual men giving blood.

Rainbow Wellington wants fewer restrictions on gay men giving blood and will have mediation with the blood service in February.

The service reviewed risks posed by homosexual men in 2007, with a report released in April last year.

Previously, any man who had engaged in homosexual acts over the past decade was banned from giving blood.

The service now prohibits any man who has engaged in protected or unprotected anal or oral sex with another man over the past five years from giving blood.

Rainbow Wellington chairman Tony Simpson said that effectively banned all men in homosexual relationships and was discriminatory.

In Tasmania, men who had gay sex had to wait a year before giving blood, while in Britain they were banned forever, he said.

Simpson said three to six months was all that was necessary for the virus to show up in tests.

"We say five years is too long, and in practical terms there's no difference between that and 10 years," he said.

"There's very little evidence, if any, that oral sex is a source of HIV-Aids infection, and we say sex with a condom is probably about as safe as you could get."

He said current rules relied on self-reporting, and men who engaged in the riskiest sexual behaviour were often those who were "in the closet" and therefore more likely to lie about sexual practices.

New Zealand Blood Service spokesman Paul Hayes said the service had followed the advice of an independent review released last year.

The selection of donors was about the safety of the blood supply, he said. "We certainly don't believe it's discrimination."

New Zealand Aids Foundation spokeswoman Dawn O'Connor said it supported the service's view.

A report from the foundation's research unit said HIV was a virus that did discriminate between people.

People who engaged in activities that involved a greater risk of HIV transmission and who also had high levels of HIV prevalence would inevitably pose a greater risk to the blood supply, she said.

Biological testing identified infections in almost all cases, but infections could be missed.

- © Fairfax NZ News