in SOUTH AFRICA,

Five years since the decision by the South African National Blood Services (SANBS) to allow Gay men who have been celibate for six months or more to donate blood, South Africa’s MSM continued saving the lives of fellow citizens by giving blood during World Blood Donor Day on June 14.

All over the world, June 14, is marked as World Blood Donor Day. This year SANBS said in a statement, “The Campaign is More Blood – More Life, and this year’s theme is ‘let’s paint the world red’. SANBS has decided to adopt the whole month of June as Blood Donor Month. We have various drives taking place around the country.”

South Africa is amongst the progressive few in this regard. Many countries still bar MSM from donating, for instance the United States of America established the ban in 1985 in response to the Aids crisis. This move was soon adopted by many other countries worldwide.

The 1985 US provision argued that men who have sex with other men were at a higher risk of contracting and transmitting HIV. At that time as it was difficult to conduct HIV testing and there little background information about HIV/Aids.

Meanwhile, British authorities are soon expected to lift the lifetime ban on homosexual men donating blood, however, MSM who have recently been sexually active will still be excluded from donating.

Italy and Spain do not mention MSM in their blood donor screening criteria while other countries, such as South Africa have instituted a deferral period since last exposure. Some of theswe countries include, New Zealand (five years); Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Hungary, Japan (one year); and South Africa (six months).

SANBS Brand and Communications Manager Vanessa Raju said, “The primary responsibility for ensuring appropriate clinical use of blood lies with clinicians. SANBS plays a key role in promoting effective transfusion practice by contributing to the development of a national policy and guidelines on clinical use of blood”.

SANBS needs to collect 810,000 units of safe blood to meet the demand by patients and they have 310,000 donor bases, which is less than 1% of the country’s population eligible to commit to donating blood.

Raju said,“South Africa has chosen 6 months because we have done extensive research and it came down to the decision that it’s enough for MSM to wait for that period. It would also make for more blood in our systems to distribute to the nation