Then don’t be surprised if it bites you in the ass. The Canadian Blood services has a link posted on their homepage entitled Patient safety is the overriding principle as Canadian Blood Services researches MSM policy. In which they state that,
“Quite simply, we’re not making value judgements – the overriding principle is to protect patients.”
However they are making a value judgement because earlier in their posting they state,
“Blood operators around the world are faced with the fact that there are pathogens for which there are no tests, or as is the case with the AIDS virus – for which there is a limitation to the available test. Even though our test for HIV is state of the art, there is a short time frame, right after acquisition of the virus, that it is not detectable.”
So if HIV is detectable except for a brief period of time when a user is initially infected, why isn’t the question, ” Have you had MSM in the last 6 months?” or “Do you engage in anal sex?” Why is the question is, “Male donors: Have you had sex with a man, even one time since 1977?”