SPOTS 2022
New Zealand Blood Service is one step closer to introducing individualised donor assessments
Our latest blood donation report is available now!
On February 8 2024, the SPOTS team launched this public report on blood donation behaviours and views about the donor policy among gay, bisexual, takatāpui and other men who have sex with men in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Once again, a massive thank you to all of our participants who took part in our survey.
What was SPOTS 2022 about?
SPOTS 2022 study was about sex between men, HIV prevention and blood donation in Aotearoa New Zealand, led by the University of Auckland and University of Otago in partnership with community organisations and the HIV sector. A major focus of the 2022 survey is understanding how we can improve blood donation policy for men who have sex with men (MSM), who are currently excluded. We also need to update our understanding of how MSM reduce their HIV risks. This includes condoms and testing, but also new tools like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), HIV treatments and undetectable HIV viral load (U=U).
We have been granted ethics approval by HDEC (2021 EXP 11450). If you have any ethical concerns about this research, you can contact the health and disability ethics committee (HDEC) on 0800 4 ETHICS or email them at hdecs@moh.govt.nz
Who was involved?
A/Prof Peter Saxton (University of Auckland)
Prof Trish Priest (University of Otago)
Sue McAllister (University of Otago)
Dr Steve Ritchie (University of Auckland)
Dr Janine Paynter (University of Auckland)
Dr Sarah Morley (New Zealand Blood Service)
Kevin Haunui (Te Whāriki Takapou)
Dr Jason Myers (New Zealand AIDS Foundation)
Mark Fisher (Body Positive)
Tony Fisher (University of Auckland)
Joshua McCormack (University of Auckland)
Cameron Leakey (University of Auckland)
Tony Koson Sriamporn (University of Auckland)
Ricky Te Akau (Te Whāriki Takapou)
Dr Jacek Kolodziej (New Zealand AIDS Foundation)
Anthony Walton (New Zealand AIDS Foundation)
In collaboration with
