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Blood donation is to be made easier for gays in the Netherlands (symbol picture)
Photo: Arno Burgi / dpa
It is now easier for homosexual men to donate blood in the Netherlands.
The prerequisite is that they have been in a steady monogamous relationship for at least twelve months, the nationwide blood bank said.
Up until now, homosexuals in the Netherlands were only allowed to donate blood if they had not had sex for at least four months. The blood bank has been trying to open blood donation to more homosexuals since 2015, said blood bank boss Tjark Tjin-A-Tsoi. Now the risk assessment will be adjusted, which is expected to be a few hundred additional blood donors.
The plan is to also accept homosexuals without a steady partner as blood donors from next year, it said. First of all, it will be checked whether the current easing is working. In the future, those affected should be asked more specifically about behavior that increases the risk of blood-borne infections. This is not that easy at all, because the questions should capture the risks, but should not embarrass the potential blood donor. It is important that patients dependent on blood donations can continue to rely on their safety, it said.
As the Dutch blood bank explained, the hitherto very restrictive treatment of homosexual blood donors has been based on empirical data that show that they are much more likely to have blood-borne infections than men with exclusively heterosexual contacts.
There are also restrictions on blood donation for people who have stayed in malaria areas or for longer where Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease occurs.
In Germany, too, controversial restrictions on homosexual men when donating blood are to be checked, the Federal Ministry of Health recently announced.
Specifically, it is about a reassessment of the requirement that men should be deferred from donating blood twelve months after their last sexual intercourse with men.
It is now to be examined whether this period should be shortened to four months.
ptz / dpa