Compliance with the current 12‐month deferral for male‐to‐male sex in Australia

Abstract

Our study confirms high compliance (>99·7%) to the 12-month deferral for male-to-male sex in Australia providing reassuring evidence for the efficacy of the screening question. Issues of 'privacy' and 'discomfort' associated with disclosure suggest the use of validated audio computer-assisted structured interview as a possible option for improving compliance with the donor questionnaire.

Reasons for noncompliance in donor risk reporting regarding male‐to‐male sex

“…Donors could think that answering truthfully has consequences for them being a donor or do not feel comfortable to report their sexual behavior during an online survey. However, our response rate was adequate (comparable or higher than other compliance studies [16][17][18][19] for an online survey about such a sensitive topic, and the overall noncompliance rate was comparable to other countries.…”

“…Privacy reasons have also been found to play a role in other compliance studies of MSM. 13, 16 We also found that MSM in general perceive the policy more as discriminating compared to compliers and women.…”

“…It is plausible that donors who reported (a combination of) reasons that have to do with the timing and/or frequency of male-to-male sex will become eligible for donation under a revised policy with temporary deferral, 26 without jeopardizing blood safety. Consequently, the percentage for noncompliance of MSM could also reduce to a rate more in line with percentages found for noncompliance in Australia and in the United Kingdom, 16,27 when changing to a temporary deferral of, for instance, 12 months. The number of noncompliers who perceive the current policy as discrimination could also decrease when the policy is revised to a temporary deferral, but for others it could remain a motivation to not comply, because sexually active MSM will still not be allowed to donate.…”

Understanding noncompliance with selective donor deferral criteria for high‐risk behaviors in Australian blood donors

“…We conducted a large, online, anonymous national survey to estimate the prevalence of, and factors associated with, noncompliance with the existing deferrals for IDU; sex with an injecting drug user; MSM; and females with MSM partners, sex worker activity or contact, and new sexual partner from a HHPC, among TTI test–negative Australian donors. Using a subset of data from this survey we have previously reported results on noncompliance with our MSM deferral . Here we report data associated with the other high‐risk sexual and nonsexual deferral criteria for which information was collected in the survey.…”

Which Infectious Blood Donors Could Be Identified by the Donor History Questionnaire - Comparison of Blood Donors Infected with HIV or HCV with Notified Cases from General Population in Germany

“…Still, a varying percentage of donors are identified with HIV and HCV infections with deferrable risks that were not detected or reported in the donor selection process [1,5,13,14]. Comparison of risk factors among infected blood donors and infected individuals from the general population is only rarely used to assess the effectiveness of blood donor selection procedures.…”