Illustration of blood donation. – Frederic DIDES / SIPA
The one-year abstinence period that homosexuals must respect to donate blood will be reduced to 4 months from April 2, according to a decree published Thursday at Official newspaper.
The reduction in this abstinence period was announced in July by the Ministry of Health, for an entry into force initially scheduled for February 1, 2020. It was finally postponed to April 2, in particular due to the time required to print the new version of the questionnaire that all candidates for donation must fill out, explained the General Management of health (DGS), which reports to the ministry.
Same rights for homosexuals as for heterosexuals by 2022
It is in this questionnaire that the criteria on sexual activity and orientation appear. “The date for the end of stakeholder consultation on the final draft orders and pre-donation questionnaire was mid-December, which explains the publication of the order today,” according to the DGS. When it was formalized in July, the Ministry of Health presented the reduction of this abstinence period as “a first step” towards an alignment of the conditions of donation for homosexuals with those of heterosexuals, envisaged “by 2022”.
Aim of this intermediate phase: to ensure that the lifting of the specific conditions applied to homosexual donors will not increase the risk of contamination for recipients during blood transfusions. From 1983 to 2016, men who have sex with men (MSM) could not donate blood at all, due to the risk of transmission of AIDS virus.
One year abstinence period
These conditions were relaxed in 2016 with the introduction of a one-year abstinence period. However, he had drew criticism from homosexual associations which saw discrimination against them.
Each year, 1.7 million people donate blood, generating 3 million donations. And each year, on average it is necessary to recruit 170,000 new donors to have the 10,000 donations per day necessary to meet the needs of the sick. One million patients per year are treated each year with blood products. Since 2016, homosexuals can donate their plasma according to the same criteria as other donors.
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