Enlarge image
Donating blood is vital for many people
Photo: Maja Hitij / dpa
New admission criteria apply to blood donations from homosexual men and other people with so-called “sexual risk behavior”.
Previously, blood could only be donated twelve months after the last sexual contact of this type, but this period has now been shortened to four months, according to the German Medical Association (BÄK).
Admission to donation four months after the end of sexual risk behavior does not lead to an increased risk for the recipients of blood and blood products, it said in a statement.
Infections with the hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus or HIV could be safely ruled out after this period of time.
The BÄK has published the updated “Guideline on the Collection of Blood and Blood Components and the Use of Blood Products” on its website.
The guideline lays down rules on the conditions under which groups of people are allowed to donate blood.
It is created and revised by the German Medical Association and the Paul Ehrlich Institute.
So far, there has been a de facto blood donation ban
The new regulation is based on an analysis presented in May by the German Medical Association, the Federal Ministry of Health and the competent higher federal authorities.
It states that the safety of blood and blood products »continues to require the determination of donor suitability and testing of the donations«.
The previous guideline stipulated that “persons” whose “sexual behavior posed a significantly higher risk of transmission of infectious diseases such as HIV than the general population” had to “postpone their donation” for twelve months.
In this context, explicitly named “heterosexual persons” with frequently changing partners, prostitutes, “transsexual persons with sexual risk behavior” and generally also “men who have sexual intercourse with men (MSM)”.
This de facto ban on blood donation for homosexuals has been discussed in Germany for a long time. Björn Beck from the board of directors of Deutsche Aidshilfe welcomed the fact that "instead of group membership, real HIV risks should play a greater role in the future." The problem of discrimination against gay and bisexual men will not be resolved. For them, monogamy is made a condition for a blood donation. In addition, the separate mention of trans people is "simply stigmatizing".
The FDP had also criticized the previous regulation as discriminatory in the past.
This means that groups of people as a whole are »assumed to have unreflective and risky sexual behavior«.
Decisive for the risk of infection is not the sexual or gender identity of a person, but the actual risk behavior.
Demand for the ban to be abolished
Jens Brandenburg, LGBTI political spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, called the relaxation of the blood donation ban "window dressing".
LGBTI stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people.
The discrimination remains, criticized Brandenburg.
"The blood donation ban for homosexual and bisexual men should be completely abolished," he said.
According to the reformed guideline, the blood donation block now applies for four months to, among other things, »Sexual intercourse between women and men with frequently changing partners«, »Sexual intercourse between men (MSM) with a new sexual partner or more than one sexual partner« and »Sexual intercourse a trans person with frequently changing partners »
mar / dpa / afp