New bloodborne diseases are likely to emerge in the coming decades but the risk they pose to blood donations is extremely small, a conference has been told.
There is a high likelihood of new diseases emerging and being preferentially spread by sexual activity among men who have sex with men (MSM), according to Dr William Murphy, medical director of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS).
He said the debate was around what constituted an acceptable level of risk, though this was unlikely to be no more than that faced by a person in a lifetime’s driving.
The conference, held to discuss a possible easing of the current lifetime ban on blood donations by MSM, heard divergent views on the issue.
The Irish Haemophilia Society, many of whose members received contaminated blood products in the past, is opposed to a change.
Brian Sheehan, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network, said the ban was seen by many gay people as “part of an architecture of structural homophobia” and a “stigma-creating tool” against them.
Reducing the ban to five years would be seen as maintaining this discriminatory architecture, he said.
Genito-urinary specialist Dr Louise Pomeroy warned that many of the factors were in place in Ireland for a “perfect storm” involving a new sexually transmitted disease.
She said now was “at time of great concern”, with the number of syphilis and gonorrhoea cases increasing inexorably, along with the rise of the “chem-sex” and “cyber-sex” phenomena. The growing popularity of pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV would inevitably drive more infections.
The 1970s saw a huge rise in sexually transmitted infections prior to the emergence of HIV, she pointed out. “The perfect conditions are in place for a lot of transmission among groups who already have higher rates of sexually transmitted diseases.”
People were not good at estimating the risk they face and generally underestimated it, she said.
Dr Murphy said the IBTS operates a ban on donations from people from sub-Saharan Africa because of malaria but this would have to be addressed.
