Give Blood Today!

[pt14]

Mon 14 Nov The Younger Hall 13:00-17:00
Tue 15 Nov The Younger Hall 13:00-17:00

No doubt the claim that the rules for giving blood are homophobic will be the next post (looking at the last time this was mentioned on the sinner).

Here is the blood transfusion service's response (sorry for being preemptive - I know i'm not going to have time to check back on this thread)

Abolishing the rule for gay men would increase the risk of HIV infected donations entering the blood supply in England by about five times , and changing the rule to allow gay men to donate one year after they last had sex with another man would increase the risk by 60%,
http://www.transfusionguidelines.org.uk ... pageid=391

Edited to add link

[papercutheart]

Would my getting pissed tonight affect the giving of blood tomorrow?

[hr]

[Midget]

It depends what activities you get up to while pissed.

[hr]

IMAGE:img9.imgspot.com/u/04/241/18/160019.jpg Too far.

[munchingfoo]

My very poor taste idea for a marketting strategy which would see blood pints increase by double over night.

"Only gays don't give blood, are you gay?"


Only partly true and highly inflammatory but if it saves a life it can only be good, right?

[hr]

I'd like to change the world but they won't give me the source code.

[Eddie Baby]

Quoting papercutheart from 17:08, 14th Nov 2005
Would my getting pissed tonight affect the giving of blood tomorrow?

Not in a bad way - the alcohol in your blood will make it flow easier (alcohol thins the blood) so assuming you're not too dehydrated, it'll make things easier!

I shall be going for a Guinness (high in iron i believe) before giving blood tomorrow! Then probably getting wrecked afterwards on about a pint and a half!

[DrAlex]

Quoting Eddie Baby from 19:18, 14th Nov 2005
I shall be going for a Guinness (high in iron i believe)

Less calories than a pint of milk or orange juice, too!

[hr]

http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37100343

[garnet]

that worries me don't they check the blood in detail before handing it over to hospitals

[pt14]

Sometimes I long for the good ole days... In Ireland you used to get a free pint of the black magic after giving blood. Pint for a pint? Yes Please!

And they do check the blood as carefully as they can - its just not possible for any test to be totally accurate (which is why they ask you all those questions) and it isn't possible to test for everything (just about every infection and virus known can be carried and transmitted through blood!). False positives and false negatives make testing never certain. Wonder if that was the problem with that guy who now is HIV neg when previously he was HIV pos...

[Marco Biagi]

Abolishing the rule for gay men would increase the risk of HIV infected donations entering the blood supply in England by about five times , and changing the rule to allow gay men to donate one year after they last had sex with another man would increase the risk by 60%,
http://www.transfusionguidelines.org.uk ... pageid=391


Ah yes, that was why I stopped coming on the Sinner in the first place.

[DrAlex]

Because of the NHS' rules against gay blood donors?

[hr]

http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37100343

[Guest]

Not to harp on about the gay thing, but is that rule in place only because of the HIV/AIDS crisis which blew up in the 80s? I'm not a gay man so it doesn't apply, but hypothetically ... if I were, and had only ever had protected sex with one other man in a committed relationship and knew neither of us had any diseases or infections, would it still be wrong for me to lie on the form and give blood? Or is there something inherently infectious within every gay man that I haven't heard of?

[garnet]

i think they could get a lot more donors if you didn't have to wait in a queue for 2 hours, so many people went away after seeing that

[Midget]

Quoting from 01:36, 16th Nov 2005
Not to harp on about the gay thing, but is that rule in place only because of the HIV/AIDS crisis which blew up in the 80s? I'm not a gay man so it doesn't apply, but hypothetically ... if I were, and had only ever had protected sex with one other man in a committed relationship and knew neither of us had any diseases or infections, would it still be wrong for me to lie on the form and give blood? Or is there something inherently infectious within every gay man that I haven't heard of?

Thats a really good question. Also what about all the heterosexuals who indulge in anal sex?

[hr]

IMAGE:img9.imgspot.com/u/04/241/18/160019.jpg Too far.

[the reason for the word w]

Well, I can't get over the fact that if you've had a blood transfusion after 1980 anywhere in the world, you are not allowed to give blood because you might have contracted CJD. Like there are no other ways of contracting it. What an incredibly lame reason is that? I'm still furious!!!

[hr]

Are you a terrorist?
- Depends! Are you terrified?

[the racing tortoise]

Quoting Midget from 19:41, 16th Nov 2005

Thats a really good question. Also what about all the heterosexuals who indulge in anal sex?

The thing about hetrosexuals is that there is no way for a woman to bugger a guy, so that even if every woman only did anal, HIV would still spread much slower among hetrosexuals because of the much lower rate of transmision to guys.

[hr]

and I really don't want to say any more.

[munchingfoo]

Seriously guys just take it as fact. They have done statistical calculations and the questions they ask you give the lowest probability that you will have infected blood. I for one wouldn't want to contract good AIDS from someones bad AIDS in a blood transfusion.

[hr]

I'd like to change the world but they won't give me the source code.

[lizzie_liz]

Quoting garnet from 01:45, 16th Nov 2005
i think they could get a lot more donors if you didn't have to wait in a queue for 2 hours, so many people went away after seeing that

they can't really go much quicker and they were going to run out of blood bags aswell or so i heard

[Guest]

Quoting munchingfoo from 21:50, 16th Nov 2005
Seriously guys just take it as fact. They have done statistical calculations and the questions they ask you give the lowest probability that you will have infected blood. I for one wouldn't want to contract good AIDS from someones bad AIDS in a blood transfusion.

[hr]

I'd like to change the world but they won't give me the source code.

That doesn't really answer my question. Statistics, yes, but the statistics do not say 100% of gay men have HIV. If I *knew* I didn't have any diseases but had still had protected anal sex, would it be wrong for me to lie on the form?

(What is "good AIDS"?)

[DrAlex]

Yes

[hr]

http://standrews.facebook.com/profile.php?id=37100343

[Guest]

It would certainly be wrong, and foolish (not to mention put lives at risk), to lie on the form. The questions are there for a reason.

I came back from Canada in January 03 and due to SARS I wasn't allowed to donate. The questions are there to establish 'risk'.