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CROWN POINT, INDIANA - A Hammond man was jailed without bail Tuesday after prosecutors charged him with donating blood even though he knew he was HIV positive.
Michael D. Ivy, 45, could face two to eight years in prison if convicted of the charge.
Authorities said Ivy was told in December 2002 he could not donate blood after he tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
But on Sept. 13, Ivy went to a blood plasma center in Hammond and lied about his medical history so he could donate blood, investigators said.
Ivy returned on Sept. 22 to donate blood again, but in the meantime the first donation had tested positive for HIV and he was told he could not donate blood.
The Lake County prosecutor's office said Ivy would be held without bail until Dec. 13, at which time his bail would be set at $20,000. A hearing is set for Jan. 25.
from The Chicago Tribune
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - The South African National Blood Service will allow gay men, who have been celibate for six months, to donate blood from November 1.
The SANBS said this was one of the changes in a more streamlined questionnaire for blood donors, the SABC reported on Sunday.
"We will be able to start with these new forms and questionnaires on November 1," said SANBS spokesperson Dr Sam Gulube.
In January the SANBS announced its plan to reword the questionnaire that potential blood donors are required to fill out to make the forms more "gender sensitive", South African-oriented and less objectionable to the gay community.
Gulube said the delay was because of logistical reasons.
It was the phrase - "male-to-male sex" - anal and oral performed with or without protection, which caused a furore on the existing form.
If the form was reworded to say "anal and oral sex", it would apply to heterosexuals too, SANBS spokesperson Ianthe Exall said.
Glenn de Swardt of the Triangle Project, the oldest gay organisation in Africa, said Aids was a heterosexually driven pandemic on the continent. But the medical standards employed by the blood centres to exclude gay men were based on statistics from countries where Aids was a homosexually driven pandemic.
"Anal sex is high-risk activity. Not all homosexual men engage in anal sex and lots of heterosexuals do," he said.
from Independent Online
