Blood Shortage: Gay Men Not Allowed to Donate

(Buffalo, NY, September 7, 2007) - - The Upstate New York blood supply is at dangerously low levels this month. News 4's Ellen Maxwell reports hospitals are running out of critical supplies, spurring an appeal for more donors.

The American Red Cross says hospitals across New York State and the country are facing a critical shortage of several major blood types. They're down to a one day supply.

Marion Paris, American Red Cross, "We're on call right now for A+ and A- and O+ and O- blood, so anybody with those blood types, if they could please come in and donate."

The shortage is so severe that the Red Cross is actually rationing some supplies of type-O blood for hospitals.

Marion Paris, American Red Cross, "It's on medical approval, so the doctors at the Red Cross have to approve the release of the blood."

Donations do normally slow in the summer because people are on vacation, but this year, Red Cross representatives say levels are down 12% in the WNY area.

Bobbi Lease is donating Friday because she works with trauma surgeons at ECMC and knows how much the patients need blood.

Bobbi Lease, Cheektowaga resident, "It's not very hard at all, it takes a little bit of your time you feel really good after you do it and if you've got good blood you really should."

Less than five percent of americans who are eligible to donate actually do donate in a given year.

Some people may be surprised by who can't give blood. According to FDA regulations, gay men are not allowed to donate.

Bryan Whitley, Executive Director, Pride Center of Western New York, "It's very discriminatory in its whole foundations because there's no higher risk of a gay man donating blood than there is any other group."

The FDA rules about donation were developed in the early 1980's. At this point, the Red Cross believes the lifetime deferral for men who have had sex with other men is unwarranted and recommends that deferral criteria be modified.

Bryan Whitley, Executive Director, Pride Center of Western New York, "There are probably over 10,000 gay men in the City of Buffalo who are HIV negative, who could donate blood safely, and would be willing to do it."

Upstate New York transplant services also collects blood and says their supply is fine, but they're always looking for new donors.WIVB TV: News, Weather, Sports for Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and all of Western New York | Blood Shortage: Gay Men Not Allowed to Donate



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HIV Rising Among Young Gay Men in New York

NEW YORK, Sept. 13 -- Young gay men are having a sharp increase in new HIV infections here, city health officials said. Action Points

Explain to interested patients that New York is seeing an increase in HIV infection among young men who have sex with men.


Note that young black and Hispanic men bear the greatest burden of the new infections, especially among adolescents.


Ask adolescents about their sexual orientation, in order to offer appropriate counseling.
Over the past six years, the total number of new HIV diagnoses among gay men under 30 has risen 33%, from 374 in 2001 to 499 in 2006, according to Thomas Frieden, M.D., the city's health commissioner.


On the other hand, new infections among men who have sex with men but are 30 or over fell by 22.2% over the same time period -- from 829 in 2001 to 645 in 2006.


All the 2006 numbers are based on a projection from the first three quarters of that year, the city said.


"We're headed in the wrong direction," Dr. Frieden said. "Unless young men reduce the number of partners they have, and protect themselves and their partners by using condoms more consistently, we will face another wave of suffering and death from HIV and AIDS."


The increase parallels a similar spike in new syphilis cases among gay men in the first quarter of 2007, but that increase affected both young and old men. (See: New York Reports Spike in Syphilis Cases)


The HIV increase among young men should not come as a surprise, according to Donna Futterman, M.D., director of the adolescent AIDS program at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx.


"There's lots of evidence of higher rates (of HIV) in this group," she said, although she added that one possible interpretation of the data is that the city health department is getting better at offering testing to young gay men.


But on the basis of her experience, she said, "there's no question more kids are getting infected."


New York is a "harbinger" of increased rates of HIV among young men nationwide, she said, adding that elsewhere "people are definitely seeing a resurgence."


Part of that increase is driven by the fading of the worst horrors of the HIV/AIDS epidemic combined with better treatment, Dr. Futterman said, and part is driven by a comparative lack of resources aimed at educating young people about safe sex.


Dr. Futterman added that in order to offer appropriate counseling clinicians treating adolescents should be asking directly whether they have sex with men, women, or both.


In New York, the city reported, the greatest burden of the new infections is borne by blacks and Hispanics.


In 2006, 101 young whites were diagnosed with HIV, compared 232 blacks and 157 Hispanics, city officials found.


The disparity was even larger among adolescents -- 81 of 87 (93%) of the gay men under 20 who were diagnosed with HIV in 2006 were black or Hispanic.


In order to tease out recent trends in HIV infection, the analysis excluded gay men who were diagnosed with HIV and AIDS at the same time -- usually an indication that the HIV infection is of relatively long duration.


But the city found that in 2006, 20% of gay men newly diagnosed with HIV were diagnosed with AIDS at the same time.


A CDC spokesman said the agency has "seen signs of possible increases in HIV among young (men who have sex with men) in the U.S." and especially among young black gay men.


In the 2005 -- the latest year for which national figures are available -- men who have sex with men accounted for 49% of all new HIV diagnoses, and 67% of those among men.


Also, the agency said, in a 2005 survey of gay men in five major cities -- Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and San Francisco -- about 25% were HIV-positive.


But as in New York, blacks in the five-city study were particularly hard-hit, with 46% testing positive.


Also, about half of HIV-infected men in the study didn't know they were infected, a figure that rose to 67% among blacks and 48% among Hispanics.


Young gay men -- ages 18 to 24 -- were least likely to know their status: almost 80% did not know they were HIV-positive, the agency said.


HIV-Positive Gay Men May Have No Idea That They're Infected

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LONDON, May 3 -- More than a third of the HIV-positive gay men in England may be HIV-positive and not know it, according to researchers here. Action Points

Explain to interested patients that this study suggests that risky sexual behavior, combined with a lack of knowledge about HIV status, may be fuelling the HIV epidemic among gay men in England.


Explain that in the U.S. nearly half HIV-infected gay men are not aware of their status.
In a cross-sectional survey here and in Brighton and Manchester -- the three cities considered to have the largest gay communities in England -- the overall prevalence of HIV among gay men ranged from 8.6% to 13.7%, found Danielle Mercey, MBChB, of University College London.


But the proportion of men who were HIV-positive but did not know their status was 44.1%, 33.3%, and 36.7% in London, Brighton, and Manchester, respectively, Dr. Mercey and colleagues reported online in Sexually Transmitted Infections.


Those percentages are slightly lower than the most recent comparable U.S. figure, according to the CDC in Atlanta. In June 2005, the agency's National HIV Behavioral Surveillance System reported that 48% of infected gay men had not been aware of their status before they took part in a five-city study.


The study is likely to provide a more accurate picture of English HIV trends than standard surveillance data, Dr. Mercey and colleagues said, because they drew their survey sample from men at more than 90 gay clubs, saunas, and bars rather than from clinic patients.


The men were asked to fill in a short questionnaire and give an oral fluid sample. The questionnaire and the sample were linked by a bar code, but no personal identifiers were collected. Nearly 3,600 questionnaires were handed out and 2,640 were returned. A linked oral sample was collected from 2,311 men.


Among the study findings:


18% of HIV-negative men and 37% of HIV-positive men reported having unprotected anal intercourse with more than one partner in the previous year.
20% of HIV-negative men and 41% of HIV-positive men reported having a sexually transmitted infection in the previous year.
Of the men who reported attending a genitourinary clinic in the previous year, 20.2% were HIV-positive in London compared with 23.8% in Brighton. The rate was significantly lower, (P=0.05) at 13.2%, in Manchester.
Even among those who visited genitourinary clinics, a large proportion were HIV-positive but undiagnosed -- 30.8% in London, 28.2% in Brighton, and 19.0% in Manchester.

In the 2005 U.S. study, according to the CDC, about 47% of gay men reported having unprotected anal sex in the previous year, but the agency did not break the number down by HIV status.


The English data "demonstrate the country-wide high levels of risk behavior, (sexually transmitted infections), and HIV prevalence," Dr. Mercey and colleagues said. Combined, the information accounts for the "worrying trend" of continuing high HIV rates in gay men.


"The high levels of HIV prevalence and risk behavior in all three cities indicate a need for more effective HIV prevention," the researchers said.


The study was supported by the United Kingdom Department of Health and the Camden and Islington NHS Primary Care Trusts. The authors reported they had no competing interests.

Medical News: HIV-Positive Gay Men May Have No Idea That They're Infected - in HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS from MedPage Today