Straight talk

Red Cross needs to re-evaluate blood donor screening questions

Here's a simple question. From whom would you rather receive a blood transfusion?

B. A heterosexual woman who has slept with numerous men, but has never used a condom while having sex.

Here's the problem.

Under current standards, the American Red Cross doesn't allow any man who admits to having sex with another man since 1977 to give blood. At one time, this restriction made a lot of sense because gay men had the highest risk of contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Although fewer gay, white men are becoming infected and dying, there has been a major increase in AIDS cases among heterosexual women and minorities, according to researchers at a conference in Washington, D.C., this week.

The solution isn't for the Red Cross to stop asking the more than two dozen screening questions that they ask before a person donates blood.

The questions are necessary because there is a window of 12 to 16 days between the time when someone is infected with HIV and when the blood test will show they are positive. The questions help screen out people at high risk for having HIV and help make the blood supply safer.

The solution is to have the U.S. Food and Drug Administration take another look at these questions. Instead of excluding all men who have had sex with a man since 1977, why not just ask if they have ever had unprotected sex with another man since a certain date?

The FDA also needs to look at how to deal with growing HIV infection among other groups, such as heterosexual women and minorities.

In addition to change by the FDA, the Red Cross needs to revise the letters it sends out to ask people to donate blood. The organization needs to spell out in the letter exactly who can and who cannot donate.

Donors shouldn't have to wait until they are sitting in a public place, talking to a complete stranger, to learn that men who have had sex with other men since 1977 can't donate blood.

We all want the blood supply in America to be as safe as possible, but the current screening questions are archaic and will offer the American public less and less protection as the HIV virus continues to infect people besides gay men.

The American Red Cross is holding a debate at 7 p.m. tonight in 102 Thomas Building to discuss the issue.