New rules for blood donors, but concerns linger

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'Karen" has donated blood six times since she was a college student in 2006, despite the fact that as a lesbian she was banned from doing so until an amendment to the blood donor health requirements came into effect on July 1.

"I'm healthy. Sexual orientation has no relation to blood safety, it just depends on whether you engage in risky behavior or not," said the 26-year-old.

Common Language, a community-based support and rights group for lesbian, bisexual women and people who are transgender, conducted a survey in 2008 of 21 lesbians and bisexuals. The result showed that all the interviewees had donated blood and 14 of them had donated more than twice.

Two were initially refused as donors when they revealed their sexual orientation but when they went to other centers and kept quiet about their sexuality they were both accepted as donors.

The survey also found that the blood of only one of the 21 donors could not be used and that was because of tuberculosis.

Acknowledging that lesbians are low-risk donors, the Ministry of Health revised the regulation introduced in 2001 that prohibited all homosexuals from giving blood.

However, the regulation still prohibits gay men from donating blood, along with drug addicts and people with multiple sexual partners.

"The revised regulation focuses on actions of donors that might compromise blood safety instead of highlighting certain groups of people," said Gao Dongying, deputy director of the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center.

The Ministry of Health says the regulations covering blood donations are aimed at protecting recipients of transfusions from exposure to potentially infected blood and blood products.

Its data indicate that, as a group, men who have sex with men are more likely to get HIV and other contagious diseases than individuals in other categories.

According to the ministry, about 3 percent of Chinese men who have sex with other men are HIV positive, a percentage that is far higher than the average for the population as a whole. It estimates that in 2011 there were 48,000 new cases in the country and the virus had been sexually transmitted in 81.6 percent of these. The proportion for the period between 1985 and 2005 was only 11.6 percent.

However, under the new amendment, the forms will inform donors that they are liable for any damages arising from problems with their blood if they knowingly give false information.

Questions:

1. When did the amendment to the blood donor health requirements come into effect?

2. In 2011 how many new cases of HIV were there?

3. About how may Chinese men who have sex with other men are HIV positive?

Answers

1. July 1.

2. 48,000.

3. 3 percent.

About the broadcaster:

Rosie Tuck is a copy editor at the China Daily website. She was born in New Zealand and graduated from Auckland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Communications studies majoring in journalism and television. In New Zealand she was working as a junior reporter for the New Zealand state broadcaster TVNZ. She is in Beijing on an Asia New Zealand Foundation grant, working as a journalist in the English news department at the China Daily website.