Moving away from the general ban, the national blood donor organization will be able to control all blood donors regardless of gender or sexuality. Instead, donors will be controlled based on their sexual behavior. Canadian Blood Services (CBS) is expected to introduce the new Behavioral Questionnaire Approach by September 30th. It will apply to both blood donations and plasma donations. This means that when donors are screened before rolling up their sleeves, they will be asked if they have recently had anal sex with new or multiple sexual partners within a certain period of time. “Sexual behavior, not sexual orientation, determines the risk of sexual transmission of blood-borne pathogens,” she said. Isra Levy, Vice President of Medical Affairs at Canadian Blood Services, at the last meeting of the organization’s board on December 3, shortly before. to the body requesting a change in its policy. It took the agency more than 90 days to complete the review of the Canadian Blood Services submission to make this change, but Health Canada says their authorization “is based on a thorough assessment of the evidence supporting the revised security.” donor control ‘.
POLITICS HAS DEVELOPED OVER THE YEARS
The policy began in 1992 as a lifelong ban following the contaminated blood scandal that erupted between the 1980s and 1990s and saw thousands of Canadians become infected with the HIV virus after receiving blood from donors. During this scandal, the Canadian Red Cross – the forerunner of Canadian Blood Services and Hema-Quebec – failed to properly control donors, leaving thousands of Canadians exposed to HIV through contaminated blood products. . Over the nearly three decades since then, policy has gradually declined, beginning with a change in 2013 that saw the life ban reduced to a five-year deferral period. This meant that, instead of categorically refusing donations from men who had sex with men, or the MSM community, as some have suggested, donations would only be accepted if the donor had not been sexually active for five years. In 2016, the five-year deferral period was reduced to one year and then, in June 2019, the current three-month deferral period took effect. This means that Canadian Blood Services prohibits gay and bisexual men who have sex with men, as well as some trans men who have sex with men, from donating blood unless they abstain for three months. Earlier this year, a pilot plasma donation program was approved in Calgary and London centers, provided donors did not have a new sexual partner or their partner had not had sexual intercourse with another partner in the past three months. Policy developments in recent years have been the result of the approval of regulatory submissions by Health Canada, which included risk modeling that indicated that it would be safe to do so. As part of this review, Health Canada convened a team of medical and scientific experts in the field of blood safety to advise on change. “Today’s license is an important milestone for a more comprehensive nationwide blood donation system and is based on advances in scientific evidence in recent years,” Health Canada said in a statement. As CTVNews.ca previously reported, amid questions about why the policy was slow to develop, Health Canada “required” two-year intervals between which donor screening criteria could be updated to monitor potential safety impacts. of the blood of the updated donor control criteria, according to documents. As has been the case for some time, every blood donation in Canada is tested for HIV. According to current testing capabilities, HIV can be detected in a “window period” of about nine days after infection. According to Canadian Blood Services, reducing the amount of time donors should stay away in the past has not led to an increased risk of communicable disease. Canadian Blood Services operates blood donations in all provinces and territories except Quebec, which is managed by Hema-Quebec. This service did not participate in this submission, but has already received approval to proceed with a more comprehensive plasma donation screening process.
DELAY OF THE PROHIBITION “DISCRIMINATION” CELEBRATED
Canadian Blood Services consults stakeholders, including the LGBTQ2S + community and patient groups throughout this process. For years, LGBTQ2S + supporters and those banned from donating have expressed frustration, saying the policy is biased and not science-based. Reacting to the news, the Community-Based Research Center (CBRC), which has long urged everyone involved to change its control policy, said it was pleased to see Canada “finally catch up with other countries”, but that more work needs to be done to dispel the stereotypes and misunderstandings perpetuated by this ban. “Health Canada’s original policy was biased and encouraged stigma and ignorance about the health of queer men and trans people. It also undermined the blood supply to Canada, which may be inefficiently low, “said CBRC Deputy Executive Director Michael Kwag in a statement. The federal government has been under fire for years, including from LGBTQ2S + lawmakers for failing to keep their long-held promise to lift the ban. Prime Minister Justin Trinto has also been criticized for repeated commitments in recent years that policy change was imminent. The top cabinet ministers in charge of the dossier over the years have rejected calls for a unilateral change to Canada’s blood regulations, saying the agency has a “limited role” to play and that it is up to Canadian Blood. Services to request a change in policy. The Liberals funded research projects aimed at helping strengthen the documented decision-making process, including the study of donor eligibility criteria and alternative control procedures. CBS said that these data, the risk modeling based on data from the Public Health Service of Canada, as well as the international survey updated their submission for 2021. The Prime Minister will speak about the forthcoming policy change in a press conference at Parliament Hill on Thursday afternoon, where he will be accompanied by some members of his LGBTQ2S + parliamentary group. In a statement, NDP critic and substitute rights critic 2SLGBTQI + Randall Garrison and Blake Desjarlais described the news as “a belated victory for men who have sex with men, community members and allies who have worked tirelessly for years to push the government to pretend. “
“Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online.” the NDP MPs. promises to evaluate the new policy as soon as it enters into force. More follows …
title: “Blood Ban Health Canada Approves Lifting Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-22” author: “Carrie Sawyer”
Moving away from the general ban, the national blood donor organization will be able to control all blood donors regardless of gender or sexuality. Instead, donors will be controlled based on their sexual behavior. Canadian Blood Services (CBS) says it plans to introduce a new approach to the September 30 behavior-based questionnaire. It will apply to both blood and plasma donations. This means that when all donors are screened before rolling up their sleeves, they will be asked if they have recently had anal sex with new or multiple sexual partners in recent months. “We look forward to welcoming new donors to our facility,” said Graham Sher, CEO of Canadian Blood Services, during a media availability. It took the agency more than 90 days to complete the review of the Canadian Blood Services submission in December to make this change, but Health Canada says their mandate “is based on a thorough evaluation of the evidence supporting safety.” of the revised donor audit ‘. Asked why it would take months for the screening process to take place, Sher said a key factor was that the service had to wait for Health Canada to sign its scheduled approach before training its staff. “We have about 1,600 employees involved in activities facing donors. “And each of these employees is going to go through several hours of comprehensive training so that they can have appropriate conversations with all of our donors,” Sher said. “We want to make sure our front-line staff feel equipped to have these positive sex discussions in a respectful and meaningful way, so it’s a huge undertaking. I recognize that people would like this to come into force as soon as possible. “But I’m also very committed to doing it well.”
POLITICS HAS DEVELOPED OVER THE YEARS
The policy began in 1992 as a lifelong ban following the contaminated blood scandal that erupted between the 1980s and 1990s and saw thousands of Canadians become infected with the HIV virus after receiving blood from donors. During this scandal, the Canadian Red Cross – the forerunner of Canadian Blood Services and Hema-Quebec – failed to properly control donors, leaving thousands of Canadians exposed to HIV through contaminated blood products. . Over the nearly three decades since then, policy has gradually declined, beginning with a change in 2013 that saw the life ban reduced to a five-year deferral period. This meant that, instead of categorically refusing donations from men who had sex with men, or the MSM community, as some have suggested, donations would only be accepted if the donor had not been sexually active for five years. In 2016, the five-year deferral period was reduced to one year and then, in June 2019, the current three-month deferral period took effect. This means that Canadian Blood Services prohibits gay and bisexual men who have sex with men, as well as some trans men who have sex with men, from donating blood unless they abstain for three months. Earlier this year, a pilot plasma donation program was approved in Calgary and London centers, provided donors did not have a new sexual partner or their partner had not had sexual intercourse with another partner in the past three months. Policy developments in recent years have been the result of the approval of regulatory submissions by Health Canada, which included risk modeling that indicated that it would be safe to do so. As part of this review, Health Canada convened a team of medical and scientific experts in the field of blood safety to advise on change. “Today’s license is an important milestone for a more comprehensive nationwide blood donation system and is based on advances in scientific evidence in recent years,” Health Canada said in a statement. As CTVNews.ca previously reported, amid questions about why the policy was slow to develop, Health Canada “required” two-year intervals between which donor screening criteria could be updated to monitor potential safety impacts. of the blood of the updated donor control criteria, according to documents. As has been the case for some time, every blood donation in Canada is tested for HIV. According to current testing capabilities, HIV can be detected in a “window period” of about nine days after infection. According to Canadian Blood Services, reducing the amount of time donors should stay away in the past has not led to an increased risk of communicable disease. Sher said the reason the body continues to focus on anal sex in screening is because evidence shows that anal sex is still “a significantly higher risk factor for transmitting diseases such as HIV from vaginal or oral sex.” ». Canadian Blood Services operates blood donations in all provinces and territories except Quebec, which is managed by Hema-Quebec. This service did not participate in this submission, but has already received approval to proceed with a more comprehensive plasma donation screening process. Sher said Thursday that the agency is aware that changing its policy is not enough to repair the relationship with the queer community. “We recognize that this is an ongoing project. We are committed to working with many, many stakeholders and groups of people. We recognize that building trust is a long process, changing policy is only one step in that direction, but discussions about understanding, recognizing and addressing the wounds and damage caused by previous policies are very important. “Part of repairing relationships, as we say, is restoring and regaining trust,” he said.
LIFTING OF PROHIBITION IS CELEBRATED
Canadian Blood Services consults stakeholders, including the LGBTQ2S + community and patient groups throughout this process. For years, LGBTQ2S + supporters and those banned from donating have expressed frustration, saying the policy is biased and not science-based. Reacting to the news, the Community-Based Research Center (CBRC), which has long urged everyone involved to change its control policy, said it was pleased to see Canada “finally catch up with other countries”, but that more work needs to be done to dispel the stereotypes and misunderstandings perpetuated by this ban. “Health Canada’s original policy was biased and encouraged stigma and ignorance about the health of queer men and trans people. It also undermined the blood supply to Canada, which may be inefficiently low, “said CBRC Deputy Executive Director Michael Kwag in a statement. The federal government has been under fire for years, including from LGBTQ2S + opposition lawmakers for failing to keep their 2015 promise to lift the ban. Prime Minister Justin Trinto has also been criticized for repeated commitments in recent years that policy change was imminent. The top cabinet ministers in charge of the dossier over the years have rejected calls for a unilateral change to Canada’s blood regulations, saying the agency has a “limited role” to play and that it is up to Canadian Blood. Services to request a change in policy. The Liberals funded $ 5 million worth of research projects to help strengthen the evidence-based decision-making process, including the study of donor eligibility criteria and alternative control procedures. CBS said that these data, the risk modeling based on data from the Public Health Service of Canada, as well as the international survey updated their submission for 2021. The Prime Minister referred to the impending policy change in a press conference at Parliament Hill on Thursday afternoon, accompanied by some members of his LGBTQ2S + parliamentary group as well as Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos. “Our government welcomes this decision. “It’s been a long time coming,” Trudeau said, adding that he agrees with many who believe the change “took too long” and should have taken place a decade ago. “The current approach was biased and wrong,” he said. In a statement, NDP critic and substitute rights critic 2SLGBTQI + Randall Garrison and Blake Desjarlais described the news as “a belated victory for men who have sex with men, community members and allies who have worked tirelessly for years to push the government to pretend. “ “Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online.” the NDP MPs. promises to evaluate the new policy as soon as it enters into force. Conservative MP Eric Duncan, who gained notoriety in 2020 for challenging the government in parliament over politics and sharing his personal experience of not being able to donate, wondered why it would be months before the policy change took effect. . “Finally, after multiple delays, Canada is one step closer to ending the country ‘s long – standing and discriminatory blood ban,” Duncan said. “It simply came to our notice then. After years of delay, we are still at least five months away from the entry into force of this change. “Such discrimination must not be resolved any time soon.”
THE CASE OF DISCRIMINATION CONTINUES
Questions about the policy and whether the federal government has discriminated against LGBTQ2s + sponsors in support of it continue to play a role in the Canadian Court of Human Rights. In 2016, Christopher …
