Blood donations by people at higher risk of HIV - our policy

Terrence Higgins Trust is the UK’s largest HIV and sexual health charity, providing services to over 50,000 people every year, a significant proportion of whom are gay and bisexual men.

THT supports the review announced by the National Blood Service in 2009 of their policy on who in the UK is allowed to give blood and who is not. We ask people to wait for the results of the review and abide by the decision made on the evidence by SABTO, the independent review body answerable to Government for the safety of blood products. We believe that the current policy of the National Blood Service was based on the best available evidence when it was drawn up. Only when an expert review has re-evaluated risks to the safety of the blood supply should the current policy be changed in line with new evidence.

The priority of the National Blood Service must be to prevent blood containing HIV or other blood-borne viruses from being passed to patients who receive transfusions or blood products. THT has a proud history of campaigning for LGBT rights and against homophobia and will continue to do so, but we believe that this is a public health issue, rather than one of homophobic discrimination.

We accept that on the surface the rules initially appear very discriminatory and believe the National Blood Service, alongside a review of the evidence, also need to review and improve the quality of their communication with members of the public who are refused, to explain why this is so.

What does THT recommend?

We recommend regular review of the current policy and clear explanation of the findings. We will not pre-empt the findings of such a review by calling for changes to the regulations without evidence. We believe any decision on the safety of the blood supply must be based on evidence and not on political lobbying or misunderstanding of it as an equalities issue. Equality demands that any exclusions are based on fair interpretation of the evidence; it does not mean allowing all donations in disregard of it.

We also recommend that the Blood Service revisit the information they provide on their website and in other media to make sure that people understand that their policy is not based on homophobia. We believe that most gay men, if the policy was properly explained to them and they could see it was based in current best evidence, would understand why they are excluded from giving blood and accept the National Blood Service policy, as many who have talked with us have done.