Ban on gay men giving blood to be lifted

the ban on blood donations by gay men was launched in the 1980s in response to the spread of AIDS and HIV

gay boy giving blood when the restrictions were lifted the Government later this year, the Ministry of Health said.

A lifetime ban on blood donations by men who have sex with another man stood up in the UK in the 1980s in response to the spread of AIDS and HIV.

But after a review by the Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (Sabta), men who have sex with men during the last year you can donate if they meet other criteria.

The recommendation was accepted by the health ministers of England, Scotland and Wales, and the ban was lifted on November 7.

men who have had oral sex or anal sex with another man over the last 12 months, with or without a condom, will still be eligible to donate blood, the Ministry of Health, said.

Sabta

Advisory Committee composed of leading experts and patient groups, conducted its review based on the latest available data and concluded that it could no longer bear the permanent exclusion of men who sex with other men.

In its opinion, the risk of infection is transmitted by blood, the attitude of potential donors to meet the criteria for selection and improvement of blood tests given.

The change means that the criteria for men who have sex with men will be in line with other groups that are deferred from donating blood for 12 months because of risk behaviors associated to infection sex.

These include women who have slept with a man who had sex with another man, people who had sex with prostitutes and those who have had sex with someone which drugs will be injected.

• current guidelines say that people can not donate blood if you have had syphilis, HTLV (Human T-lymphotropic virus) or hepatitis B or C, and a lifetime ban also been established for people already working as a prostitute or injected drugs.

The announcement was welcomed by human rights activist Peter Tatchell, but said he did not lift the ban on homosexuals who always used condoms.

he said. "Although the new policy is a great improvement in the existing rules are discriminatory, a ban of 12 months is excessive and unjustified"

activist who launched the first campaign against the lifetime ban on blood donors for gays and bisexuals in 1991, he added. "Most gays and bisexual men without HIV and HIV If you still have safe sex with condoms, they have only one pair and negative HIV test, your blood is safe to give.