Review of policy on donors, HIV

A GUIDELINE that bars blood banks from informing donors if they are HIV positive unless a donor explicitly seeks to know his HIV status is to come up for review. A parliamentary committee that looked into the functioning of the National Aids Control Organisation (Naco) last year asked the organisation to strike out this rule from the Action Plan on Blood Safety, insisting it left room for HIV positive donors to unknowingly transmit the infection to their sexual partners.

A GUIDELINE that bars blood banks from informing donors if they are HIV positive unless a donor explicitly seeks to know his HIV status is to come up for review.
A parliamentary committee that looked into the functioning of the National Aids Control Organisation (Naco) last year asked the organisation to strike out this rule from the Action Plan on Blood Safety, insisting it left room for HIV positive donors to unknowingly transmit the infection to their sexual partners.

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A reluctant Naco initially dithered, then decided to refer the issue to an expert group. "This issue is being referred to a technical group for a review," said a Health Ministry official. Officials associated with the drafting of the 2003 Action Plan on Blood Safety that imposed the formal bar attribute this to two reasons.

One relates to the difference in HIV testing procedures at blood banks and HIV voluntary testing centres. Blood banks carry out a rather summary test, only good enough to let them decide to use the blood. Voluntary testing centres, in contrast, employ detailed three-step confirmatory procedures.

The second reason isn't so much about the technology adopted as about the demand and supply of blood. For a country where voluntary blood donors are still far from catching up with demand, officials fear a mandatory HIV positive result could put off some potential blood donors.

Another viewpoint emerging in the Health Ministry, however, finds the parliamentary committee's recommendations logical.