Health committee  How much time are you giving me, and should I answer in French or in English? I will speak English for the benefit of the discussion between Dr. Levy and me.

Health committee  Very briefly, the tests that are used to screen donors for the presence of infectious diseases have improved consistently over the years. We started out with tests that unfortunately would miss some infections because they were recent infections, so-called window period infection

Health committee  That cannot be operationalized. People at higher risk of HIV, what does that mean? How do you define who is at higher risk for HIV? You have to look at specific situations where you can say yes, the person belongs to a higher risk group, or no, he or she doesn't belong. That's wh

Health committee  I'm sorry, why not just do what?

Health committee  On the specific issue of men having sex with men, it has been stated before that there are epidemiological studies showing that the risk of HIV infection in this group is higher compared to the general population.

Health committee  To the best of my knowledge, this is not a situation where we know for a fact there is an increased risk. The simple fact of having multiple partners will not necessarily put you at higher risk. It depends on who the partners are. The other thing is that it has always been very

Health committee  Sure. They're actually included in the references that were--

Health committee  I am going to refer back to Ms. Ballantyne's explanation. She explained that identifying some groups as being at especially high risk of these diseases is the result of very rigorous scientific studies that are widely accepted in our community. For example, those studies show tha

Health committee  I guess that question is for me. There are two points to your question. The first point has to do with the last part of your question, and it's the case not only for organ, cell, and tissue donation, but also for blood donation. When we assess the risk in a given donor, we wo

Health committee  I totally agree with you. In the situation you are describing, it's more than likely to be the case. The problem is that in a real-life situation where you need to assess the risk status of a given donor, you may not have the details of all of what you just explained at hand. Fir

Health committee  This is why the procedure for exceptional release is in place. Once you have the basic information that this person might be at increased risk of transmitting an infectious disease based on the assessment that's put forth in the standards, if you have that possibility by reviewin

Health committee  Yes, I'm going to speak on behalf of the CSA. Good morning. My name is Marc Germain. I am here today as the incoming chair of the technical committee on cells, tissues and organs for transplantation and assisted reproduction. In my regular job, I am also vice-president and medic