Gay blood donors?

[Ruiner]

edit: also 50% of the people who have HIV are black I believe so if the people were black the numbers were even higher. Even if one person is black it's alot higher. 25% of people with HIV are white. other 25% is a mix of all left over races so have sex with asian people its safest!

Can you imagine the shitstorm if blacks weren't allowed to give blood because of this statistic?

[Woozie]

I can't donate blood because I was born in London in 85, although my mom came back to the U.S. by the time i was 6mo old, I can NEVER donate blood, plasma, sperm, anything.

They are afraid I have dormant madcow and it will kill people.
So same as the gays, its retarded, and based on fear more than any actual evidence.

Actually, there's a difference. They worry a lot more about people who have lived in or traveled to Europe because there's no test for CJD or Mad cow (no way to test the donated blood), so it's understandable that they'll be incredibly overly careful about it. Also, with the long incubation period and all, it's hard to tell if someone has it (whereas with HIV, it can be tested accurately within weeks, and 6 months after contraction a false negative is unlikely).

But on the other hand, mad cow/nvCJD isn't likely to be transferable through blood since the prions live in the nerve tissue, but until we understand prion diseases more, I understand their caution.

Edit: I was wrong.

Wiki says it can be transmitted through blood transfusions. Here's their source.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...763fc4e0cc888f

[thatwasnifty]

Can you imagine the shitstorm if blacks weren't allowed to give blood because of this statistic?

Just like they shouldn't be allowed to adopt. Only Asian American men should: http://www.aclu.org/images/asset_upl...le16_37906.pdf (page 14, first paragraph)

[archibaldcrane]

Anal Sex, Oral Sex, and Vaginal Sex is all high risk.

men to men relationships have 25% chance of contracting HIV

men to women relationships have 18% chance of contracting HIV

Sharing heroine needles have a 12% chance of contracting HIV

. . . The more you know

Here's a more apt quote:

In 2005, over half of new HIV infections diagnosed in the US were among gay men, and up to one in five gay men living in cities is thought to be HIV positive.

At that level of HIV incidence, between the cost of taking and testing blood where upwards of 20% of it may be infected, and the risk of taking infected blood that passes tests (the risk being 10X or more at least)

Many if not most urban gay populations have HIV infection at epidemic levels. In the U.S. in 2006, male-to-male sex (3% of the population by liberal estimates) contributed to over 17,000 new HIV infections. Heterosexual sex in both genders -combined- contributed to only over 11,000 new HIV infections. Men who have sex with men are infected at rates 20 times or higher than straight people, for a variety of reasons.

[Mici]

Actually, there's a difference. They worry a lot more about people who have lived in or traveled to Europe because there's no test for CJD or Mad cow (no way to test the donated blood), so it's understandable that they'll be incredibly overly careful about it. Also, with the long incubation period and all, it's hard to tell if someone has it (whereas with HIV, it can be tested accurately within weeks, and 6 months after contraction a false negative is unlikely).

Well 24years seems like a very long period. I tried to at my school like 2mo ago and they said its likely I will never be able to because of it. Sucks to, I'm B- so I could help a lot of people with that.

Although I fairy sure I don't have it, I cant just lie to them in case I do

[fantasticdan]

At that level of HIV incidence, between the cost of taking and testing blood where upwards of 20% of it may be infected, and the risk of taking infected blood that passes tests (the risk being 10X or more at least)

Many if not most urban gay populations have HIV infection at epidemic levels. In the U.S. in 2006, male-to-male sex (3% of the population by liberal estimates) contributed to over 17,000 new HIV infections. Heterosexual sex in both genders -combined- contributed to only over 11,000 new HIV infections. Men who have sex with men are infected at rates 20 times or higher than straight people, for a variety of reasons.

http://fisher.berkeley.edu/cteg/imag...tos/darwin.jpg

[LinktheDeme]

My argument is that anal sex is more risky than vaginal sex. All you did by posting this stat:



is help prove my point. And I don't simply mean gay anal sex; I mean ALL anal sex.

It's funny how defensive people get when they're quoted. I was reassuring you that oral sex is a high risk behavior

edit: also you can get HIV through open cuts and sores thats a given. It's also possible to get it while making out as well because your mouth is an open tissue and if the person you are making out with has a sore or cut (from something small like a coldsore even, a tongue ring or blood in saliva irritated gum) you can contract HIV.

Tattoos have a low risk of getting HIV currently because they changed practice. Before they didn't change needles and did not use fresh ink they would just re use both. If you notice what they do now is put the ink on a plate and have a fresh needle then dispose the ink afterward. If you don't see them giving you a fresh needle and doing that with the ink you better not get a tattoo from there otherwise you are getting re used ink that possibly has HIV in it.

Last but not least traces of the HIV virus have been found in Saliva and Tear drops however it is currently stated that there is not enough of the virus in it to contract it. People are skeptical about that though because there is little known about HIV and extensive study is still going on about this the reason why they are saying this is because they do not want to spread mass hysteria which is why the tattoo parlor practice which was changed was not announced.

Oh and another thing that isnt said to spread mass hysteria if your barber does not clean his shears or razors and when he cuts someone's hair and accidently cuts them with that blade and then later you come in and get cut with the same blade you can get HIV. That's also not widely spread to prevent mass hysteria.

[Kuya]

If the risk factor is anal sex, is there a reason why they don't just ask if you've been having anal sex instead of asking if it's been with a man? Unless we're somehow equating homo sex to anal sex for some strange reason.

[Lordwafik]

It's because men are pigs, and they don't want pigs blood.

[Kuya]

To add: Calling it gay sex or homo sex is incredibly idiotic. First and foremost, lesbians have lower incidences of AIDS than people who engage in heterosexual relationships, and saying homo sex implies that lesbians are somehow involved (and for those that don't know, so does gay, as gay is pretty much the same thing as homosexual, the word gay is popularly used to refer to male homosexuals, but in actuality it refers to both male and females; there is no word for male homosexual, specifically), and calling it gay sex somehow implies that it is some important hallmark for any homosexual relationship, which couldn't possibly be more inaccurate. Not to mention, that there isn't some magical barrier preventing heterosexual relationships from engaging in anal penetration, nor anything that forces homosexual relationships to engage in it. So somehow assuming that "sleeps" with a man = anal sex is just more wood for the good old smoke signal that we hardly know a thing about human sexuality, but that it is at best conjecture.

[Priran]

the risk factor isn't anal sex, it's gay anal sex. gay men are oversexed since male sex drives are feeding off of male sex drives, and they're more likely to transmit HIV since I would imagine the lack of an imperative to prevent an unplanned pregnancy makes it less likely for them to wear a condom

the blood bank screening makes no mention of lesbians, the questions are specifically "have you ever had sex with a man who had sex with another man" for women and "have you ever had sex with a man, even once" for men.

Can you imagine the shitstorm if blacks weren't allowed to give blood because of this statistic?

two of the questions are "were you born in africa" and "have you ever had sex with someone born in africa"

unless the statistic quoted is limited to the US, I'd say they're addressing that risk

[EternityEnd]

I would imagine the lack of an imperative to prevent an unplanned pregnancy makes it less likely for them to wear a condom

lol'd. You're joking, right?

[Priran]

for the sake of this argument I think we're pretending gay men don't acknowledge their own elevated risk for contracting HIV

[archibaldcrane]

lol'd. You're joking, right?

Are you arguing that HIV is an epidemic in the gay community despite constant condom use by gay men?

[hawksquest]

Gays have aids.

Your ignorance is amazing.

[Julian]

the risk factor isn't anal sex, it's gay anal sex. gay men are oversexed since male sex drives are feeding off of male sex drives, and they're more likely to transmit HIV since I would imagine the lack of an imperative to prevent an unplanned pregnancy makes it less likely for them to wear a condom

lol'd

[Dimmauk]

They also ask if I've ever been to africa or had sex with anyone from africa

In Texas, they ask the same questions about same sex intercourse and trip to Africa and sex with Africans.

Luckily, monkeys aren't on the list.

[Senoska]

They just don't want to spread the gay.

[LinktheDeme]

the risk factor isn't anal sex, it's gay anal sex. gay men are oversexed since male sex drives are feeding off of male sex drives, and they're more likely to transmit HIV since I would imagine the lack of an imperative to prevent an unplanned pregnancy makes it less likely for them to wear a condom

the blood bank screening makes no mention of lesbians, the questions are specifically "have you ever had sex with a man who had sex with another man" for women and "have you ever had sex with a man, even once" for men.


two of the questions are "were you born in africa" and "have you ever had sex with someone born in africa"

unless the statistic quoted is limited to the US, I'd say they're addressing that risk

Statistic was from U.S.A. study iirc however only 500,000 people in US have HIV diagnosed. so 250,000 isnt a huge number really I wouldn't think. However that's only diagnosed not actual number so no one really knows how many unknown cases there actually are.

[thatwasnifty]

For what it's worth, here is the FDA's policy on blood donations for men who have had sex with men: FDA/CBER - FDA Policy on Blood Donations from Men Who Have Sex with Other Men

What about men who have had a low number of partners, practice safe sex, or who are currently in monogamous relationships?

Having had a low number of partners is known to decrease the risk of HIV infection. However, to date, no donor eligibility questions have been shown to reliably identify a subset of MSM (e.g., based on monogamy or safe sexual practices) who do not still have a substantially increased rate of HIV infection compared to the general population or currently accepted blood donors. In the future, improved questionnaires may be helpful to better select safe donors, but this cannot be assumed without evidence.

In other words, they're too dumb to properly word questions.