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Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

amitguptaneedsyou.com

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Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#221

Post by adnam »

haugstrup wrote: post #157
nostromo wrote: post #78

Since I'm still gay, I'm not allowed to help, no matter how many times you ask. I get why they do this and I shouldn't let it bother me, but emotionally it feels the same as if they just said, "Please become a donor, nohomo." edit: Of course I still wish the very best for Amit.

All Europeans are also banned from giving blood for forever. I'm a very recent transplant to the US from Denmark. I was a regular blood donor in Denmark and checked up on the US regulations before moving here. Even wrote the local blood bank because I didn't believe that the "if you've lived more than 5 years in Europe, you can't give blood ever" was for real. Sadly, the rule is very much real. The blood bank was als…

This even applies within Europe, for example most British people can't donate blood in Spain.

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#222

Post by jacoblyles »

4ad wrote: post #214
jacoblyles wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry if reality offends anyone's PC sensibilities, but in the US MSM account for 49% of HIV cases[1] despite accounting for a small percentage of the population. MSM are MUCH more likely to get HIV than, say, frat boys who casually hook up with a lot of females. I'm not sure if the ban is completely justified, but there is potential reason behind it. [1] http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/docs/fastfacts-msm-fin…

49% of HIV cases are MSM, not 49% of MSMs have HIV, don't twist it around. You are trying to make it sound much worse than it really is, when in fact it's a non-issue, thus spreading FUD. Very few MSMs have HIV.

That's what I said. Try reading my comment again.

49% of HIV cases = 580,000 cases. That's a staggeringly high infection rate in the MSM community in the United States - more than one in ten. The CDC estimates that one in five gay men have HIV in a study of 21 major cities, and that 40% of them don't know it.

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#223

Post by chimeracoder »

danielna wrote: post #177
nostromo wrote: post #78

Since I'm still gay, I'm not allowed to help, no matter how many times you ask. I get why they do this and I shouldn't let it bother me, but emotionally it feels the same as if they just said, "Please become a donor, nohomo." edit: Of course I still wish the very best for Amit.

Hi nostromo, I'm a Level II Volunteer for the National Marrow Donor Program, meaning I've had the training to coordinate and run drives locally. Let me preface my comment by saying I'm in no shape or form someone who is qualified to speak for the organization as a whole, as I've only become a volunteer in the last year. These thoughts are my own. In my limited experience being a part of marrow drives I've come across…

I already posted this below, but I see that you're affiliated with the Marrow Donor program. I'm reposting this here on the hope that you can bring this the attention of someone who can make a difference.

Beyond being somewhat homophobic, this policy is actually counterproductive. The explanation is long, but I've written it all up here: http://bit.ly/q6624N . (The second and last points, in bold, are the most relevant).

Being Indian myself, it's incredibly painful to see posts like this and know that I can't do anything to help Amit out. Because I was never allowed to take the test, we'll never know if I would have matched Amit. But just think - what if I had?

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#224

Post by jacoblyles »

tibbon wrote: post #217
skrebbel wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand anything about this. In the US, straight persons can't get AIDS and gay persons can? Or, what's the point? Anyone care to explain? It sounds like nothing but Alan Turing-style discrimination based on fairy tales to me (but I might miss a point. like that research that proved that being gay is genetic and the same gene also causes sloppy bone marrow)

I don't get it either. African-American women are one of the fastest rising HIV+ groups in the US, yet they aren't banned. Yes, anyone can transmit HIV. The policy is ignorant and based upon the idea that all men who have sex with other men are unsafe, promiscuous, and an hiv test won't be effective as they may have had a recent exposure that is essentially untestable. Its a holdover from the 80's when people were af…

Anyone can transmit HIV, but MSM are much more likely to have it than any other demographic subgroup. Don't let your ideology get in the way of the facts. The CDC says that 600,000 MSM are living with HIV, that's about 1 in 10 MSM. That's tragic.

I googled around for some stats, and I found this quote from a website called the Bay Area Reporter:

"According to a 2008 CDC study, one in five MSM in 21 major U.S. cities were infected with HIV, and nearly half (44 percent) were unaware of their infection. The study also found that 28 percent of black MSM were HIV-infected, compared to 18 percent of Hispanic/Latino MSM and 16 percent of white MSM. Of the HIV-infected black MSM, 59 percent were unaware of their infection."

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#225

Post by Splines »

kevinelliott wrote: post #84
k3dz wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thinking along these lines, around 6 million children under five die in developing countries each year from malnutrition and hunger-related diseases. [1] http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats

Yep, this is exactly where my guilt comes in. What am I doing to help any of those millions of starving children? Very little. So many people have told me throughout my life that I need to just ignore it, and you can't save the world. I can't help but think that's just their way of trying to invalidate any guilt of their own, even if they're right that it's not possible to help everyone everywhere. Though that's why…

What am I doing to help any of those millions of starving children? Very little.

Though that's why I invest on Kiva, ...

Do you feel like you're not making enough of a difference? You're already helping more people than most people out there.

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#226

Post by obtu »

haugstrup wrote: post #187
ramblerman wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, as a European I'm Offended. But seriously what's the motivation behind this?

BSE/Mad Cow fears. Because of the BSE outbreak in the UK in the 80s (and the various smaller outbreaks later) the US authorities were scared shitless at some point. So if you've lived 5 or more years in Europe you're banned from donating blood forever. Not sure I understand the logic... Quarantine for a set period I can understand, but banning for life makes little sense. After all there are many blood donors in all…

It's not like prions are contagious. If I wasn't in the UK for those years, and was protected from any additional risk by fairly sensible quarantine policies… I am just as safe as the next donor. It sounds like the US is depriving itself from a large pool of donors due to a blanket dismissal of public policy in other countries.

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#227

Post by suivix »

skrebbel wrote: post #215
nostromo wrote: post #78

Since I'm still gay, I'm not allowed to help, no matter how many times you ask. I get why they do this and I shouldn't let it bother me, but emotionally it feels the same as if they just said, "Please become a donor, nohomo." edit: Of course I still wish the very best for Amit.

I don't understand anything about this. In the US, straight persons can't get AIDS and gay persons can? Or, what's the point? Anyone care to explain? It sounds like nothing but Alan Turing-style discrimination based on fairy tales to me (but I might miss a point. like that research that proved that being gay is genetic and the same gene also causes sloppy bone marrow)

About half of people with AIDS got it from homosexual behavior, although I don't remember the exact statistic.

edit:

"The CDC had already revealed last year that approximately 53% of the estimated 56,300 new HIV cases in 2006 were in homosexual men, with the African American population being particularly affected."

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive/ldn/2009/aug/090826...

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#228

Post by gte910h »

zasz wrote: post #195
cbr wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Much of the reason for the secondary contact information is to ensure that if you are a match they have multiple ways to find you. None of which helps if you would have been a match but instead dropped out of their signup process.

And if you were too much of a lazy douche to fill out a couple extra fields, they're supposed to believe you'd go through the actual effort of becoming a donor because...?

I'm sorry, you're under the impression people who think of helping this man are under obligation to do so.

Anything that makes more successful donations less likely is bad. Asking for invasive personal information without justifying it in such a way that people are comfortable giving it is BAD.

The fact the guy you're responding to points out something on a site with enough gravitas that is an impediment to the process isn't douchey, it's being helpful. He may be literally saving lives by getting people to improve the process to get more matches.

I'm sure getting everyone to walk to a hospital and pay their own way to take a sample would be a much more convenient way for the marrow matching service to work, however, I be far fewer people would do it.

Same principle with forms that ask for scary data. Not doing so, and doing things in user friendly ways may get one or two more people the marrow they desperately need.

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#229

Post by medius »

I am an Indian living in the US and I registered for the marrow donor program after my wife forwarded information about Amit . I sent the swabs more than a week ago. Not sure how it works, but hopefully there will be a match.

They said it will take two weeks for me to get the kit, but it was surprisingly fast.

Re: Amit Gupta hasn't found a marrow transplant match; today's your last chance.

#230

Post by tomjen3 »

echo-unity wrote: post #200
tomjen3 wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get tested for a match anyway - if you match you can always say you didn't read the papers very carefully and that as gay person you can't donate. Then when he dies we have somebody to point to and say "this person could have been saved, but for your bigotry".

Morbid way of proving a point, don't you think?

If there was a better way, I would take it.

But often people don't react until you can point to somebody and say "because of direct consequences of this policy, this person is no longer alive". It is even better if you can show his family crying.

Personally I would prefer getting them to fix it without getting anybody killed.

But that may be too much to ask.

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