In recognition that it was World AIDS day recently, a telling statistic has come to light here in Australia.

For the first time HIV diagnosis rates for straight men in Western Australia are now greater than for gay men.

It seems that straight men, predominantly over the age of 40 who have traveled overseas and engaged in unsafe (i.e. unprotected) heterosexual sex are the cause of the spike in new infections. The great danger in this news is that men in this demographic are usually less likely to have regular sexual health checkups, thus not identifying the infection, sometimes for years. By leaving the infection unidentified and untreated, the virus attacks and eventually destroys the carriers’ immune system and endangers the health of their straight sexual partners.

Another point to ponder is this. Given the increased HIV infections among heterosexual men, will heterosexual men also be banned from donating blood, just as all homosexual men (regardless of their HIV status) were, and still are.

I couldn't care less; but those who are interested might like some evidence that this is the case: actual studies e.g., names of researchers, anything at all about how this finding was produced.

for such a small percentage of the population those practicing homosexuality certainly want a large say in things.

Saw it today your post is quite true
Gays however are far from the only ones not able to donate
Having been unlucky enough to have had both Q Fever and Barmah Forest Virus I can not donate
Hetrosexuals who present a danger can not donate and we would not want them to

Belly, you are quite right - those infected with specific illnesses should not be able to donate. However, a blanket ban was placed on all homosexual men because of the HIV issue. This was the point of my question.

Dear runner

I would have thought that if anyone wanted to help prevent the spread of HIV in the community, such help would be welcome. The gay community has years of experience in successfully slowing the spread of HIV. A pity your stubborn blindness prevents you from seeing and accepting that help.

ttbn, it's sad that you couldn't care less about the spread of a lethal virus in the community at large. I sincerely hope that you or any of your loved ones are not effected by it.

The source of my post was an article published by Online ABC News. Perhaps you could contact them for further details. That is of course, if you are interested.

;Our society is looking to inoculate children against hate and prejudice.'

were not they the mob who recently had to sack a journalist for lying about Trump on Thanksgiving day? They would have no staff left at CNN and abc if that rule applied to all.

Hey Aries,

Welcome to the forum.

"The great danger in this news is that men in this demographic are usually less likely to have regular sexual health checkups, thus not identifying the infection, sometimes for years."

Which demographic are you referring to?

The 'I like to go to Bankok to make out with underage kids, ladyboys or Asian prostitutes' demographic?

"Will heterosexual men also be banned from donating blood?"

If it's 'heterosexual men' who go to south-east Asian countries to make out with underage kids, ladyboys or Asian prostitutes, then we can only hope, right?

Aries: You ask, "Will heterosexual men also be banned from donating blood?"

The answer is most likely NO. The reason why is because the people who make these policies understand the mathematics of risk very well and that they should not be swayed but touchy-feely ideas of inclusion and anti-discrimination.

The raw statistic given is that more straight men in WA are now getting HIV than gays (I believe it was 26 heterosexual vs 20 homosexuals in the last year). So this seems to some, presumably like yourself, that straight men giving blood are now a higher risk than gays with respect to HIV contamination. However, what is being missed here is that there are *alot* more straight men than gays (well over one order of magnitude, ie: gays only make up single digit percentage of the population). So once you account for this, a randomly selected gay man without HIV is still considerably a higher risk of getting a new infection than a random straight man.

Also, this only covers the new infections, but for blood donations *all* infections (ie: both new and previous) have to be considered. The majority of people infected with HIV are gays. And remember, gay men only constitute a few percent of the population so there is a vastly higher risk in accepting donations from them.

By-the-way: it's been years since I've given blood, I had to stop because I developed a tumor and that ruled me out from ever giving again. But when I gave you had to satisfy many criteria: not just whether your gay or not. Eg, Hetros couldn't give blood if they've had too many partners. I imagine that the list of questions has only gotten longer since then. And if sex-tourists are too much of a risk to blood safety then they will not refrain from asking applicants if they have had sex with residents of particular countries. They really don't care if these questions appear personal, discriminatory, racist, etc.- because they are driven by science and math and not by a political agenda.

Aries,

That wasn't too hard was it? I've have now looked it up and, yes, you passed on what was reported. You could have referred to your source in the first place. That's normal procedure.

I don't care about it because I am in my late seventies. Noone I care about would ever be affected by these amoral creeps. Anyone with loose morals and who treats sex as a casual passtime is of no concern to me. There is nothing I can do about modern behaviour. People can laugh at me if they wish; but I certainly don't need to concern myself with people I am contemptuous of. They reap what the sow.

Don't let that put you off, though. All opinions all opinions are welcome here

Aries welcome and know you will be targeted here, please stay around
It is not your fault just the way some work here, we are mostly old men and some do not want views other than their own seen here
Think a bit too please stay around
Think our system of telling who can and can not donate blood is a good one
I however need to say this, a SOCIAL ACTIVIST I am deeply concerned some, will make a case for being discriminated against quite falsely
EG two recent racist charges one on a plane one in a Melbourne nightclub by people who in fact acted like the racists they claimed others are
So underline my view our blood donation system is *in no way descrimatory*

There might be something in the Jehovah Witnesses' stance about blood transfusion ! I'm not aware of any other religions that have a similar view.
Nature's way of cleaning the gene pool ?

I notice that the village idiot is still convinced that he is being "targeted" by people who merely have opinions different from his. Ignorance and paranoia is a dangerous combination.

If you like frightening people about their sexual behaviour, pass this one on.

10 news online reports that the Royal College of Pathologists of Australia has found that 70% of throat, tonsils and tongue, head and neck cancers are derived from oral sex. Equal opportunities for homosexuals and heterosexuals. Michael Douglas the actor owned up to the cause of his throat cancer recently. ABC Leftist and lesbian, Julie McCrossin copped it to. No shame or embarrassment for her she advised. That's more important than death and unusual behaviour I suppose.

The immunity and inability of old age is great!

GY once noted we say the rudest things to each other here
Just maybe some promote such talking this village idiot will not report ttbn no point!
He has said such things with seeming impunity, to most posters here
I could, with ease, say much worse but a truth? I have more respect for the place than him

Belly,

Like I let it go when you called a me maggot and a grub? Get over yourself. You are the only poster here who complains non-stop about what others say. And, you are always carrying on about how you are thinking about leaving. You are always sticking your oar in on behalf of other posters who don't care what anyone says about them or too them. I generally ignore your nonsense these days because (a) it's too much trouble to interpret what you write and (b) you take everything personally and start rabbiting on about leaving - again. Try doing what most posters do when they disagree with others: they simply state their own opinions and move on.

Aries,

I believe that the % of HIV positive males is still by far the highest of any sector of the population. Until this changes the ban on blood donations (put in place the protect the vulnerable and not simply to discriminate) will remain.

Airies54.

Your village is up over the ridge and in the next valley. We have our own problems!

Don't take the crooked sixpence from the crooked style on the boundary fence, it belongs to a cooked politician that falls over to your equality message; which is a very false one.

On the other side of the fence is a tee intersection. The left fork will take you to the third valley where lies village Gay. Every street is either Oxford road or William street.
You'd be happy for awhile there!

Dan