Donating blood will be easier for gay and bisexual men in the UK after NHS relaxes rules
Britain recently announced changes in its National Health Service (NHS) rules that would make it easier for gays and bisexuals to donate blood.
The move, which was made upon the recommendations of FAIR (For the Assessment of Individualised Risk) steering group, means that “men who have sex with men and have the same sexual partner for three months or more” with no known exposure to STI (sexually transmitted infection) or use of PEP (post-exposure prevention) will be able to give blood starting summer of 2021.
(The FAIR steering group is composed of the UK blood services, Public Health England, Nottingham University and various stakeholders including LGBTQ+ organizations.)
In the ‘80s, a lifetime ban on blood donations by men who have sex with men was put in place in the UK as a response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The controversial ban, which has been criticized as homophobic, was lifted in 2011 in most of the UK, where gay and bisexual men were allowed to donate but only after one year of abstinence from sex. In 2017, this was reduced to three months.
According to the NHSBT, when the changes come into effect in summer of 2021, “Any individual who attends to give blood—regardless of gender or sexuality—will be assessed for eligibility against these sexual behavior risks and deferred if found to be at a higher risk of infection.”
Among the highlights of the changes are donors will no longer be asked to declare if they have had sex with another man, which will make the criteria for blood donation “gender neutral and more inclusive.”
The NHSBT also added that there would be a set of other deferrals that will be introduced for high-risk sexual behaviors like having multiple sexual partners or engaging in “chemsex” or using drugs while having sex.
FAIR’s recommendations, which have been accepted by the Department of Health and Social Care, came from its findings that “people with multiple partners or who have chemsex are the most likely to have blood-borne sexual infections; a strong link between HIV and a history of syphilis or gonorrhea; and receiving anal sex was identified as the easiest way to acquire a sexual infection from a partner.”
The group also concluded that the changes will maintain the UK’s “world-leading supply of blood” known to have less than one in a million chance of not detecting a hepatitis B, C and HIV in a donation.