The blood donation will be open mid-March to homosexuals, without conditions, the government deciding to abandon any reference in the criteria of donation to sexual orientation to put an end to a “
discrimination
”, announced Tuesday January 11 the ministry of health.
In the continuation of the bioethics law and of a "
political will
" of the Minister of Health, a decree will be signed Tuesday which will make the donation of blood accessible to all on the basis of the same criteria, for the homosexuals as for the heterosexual ones.
From March 16, there will be "
no more reference to sexual orientation
" in questionnaires prior to blood donation, explained Jérôme Salomon, Director General of Health, during a press briefing.
“
Anyone will come as an individual donor.
"
"An evolution of the conditions of access to blood donation"
Since July 2016, homosexual men have theoretically been able to donate blood, a gesture that had been prohibited for them since 1983 because of the risk of transmission of AIDS. But this possibility remained until now subject to a period of sexual abstinence (first set at one year, before being reduced in 2019 to four months) which had to be declared during the preliminary interview.
"
The extreme vigilance of the health authorities allows an evolution of the conditions of access to blood donation
", explained the Director General of Health, who does not expect an increase in the residual risk of transmission of HIV by transfusion to following this measurement.
"
This level of risk has been falling steadily for decades
," he recalled.
A new criterion will be added to the questionnaire preceding the blood donation: the donor must declare whether he is taking treatment for pre- or post-exposure prophylaxis to HIV, in which case the donation will be postponed four months later.
Read also Blood donation: the French Blood Establishment warns of the urgent needs
A certain number of questions will also aim to detect possible individual risk behaviors (sexuality with several partners, under drugs, etc.), but sexual orientation will no longer be mentioned.
"
These are questions donors are already used
to," said Professor Salomon.
Before France, many countries, such as Spain, Italy, Israel and recently England, have already changed their conditions of access to blood donation in this direction.
