San Francisco Frontiers - Canada lifts restrictions on gay men's blood donations

Instead, donors will be screened for high-risk sexual behaviours, regardless of gender or sexuality.

"Under the new screening approach, Canadian Blood Services will introduce a sexual behaviour-based donor-screening questionnaire that will apply to all donors of blood and plasma," the health department said in a statement.

The policy change -- to be implemented by September -- marks "a significant milestone toward a more inclusive blood donation system," it said.

This follows several changes to the blood donation regime over the past decade that saw deferral periods for donations by gay men progressively lowered from a lifetime ban to three months in 2019.

This meant at the time that men who had sex with men could not donate blood if they'd had sex during the period prior to the donation.

For years, advocates said the policy was discriminatory and not based on science.

Research cited by Health Canada said current risks of contracting HIV from the blood supply, with all samples tested, was estimated to be "very low," at 1 in 20.7 million.

It noted also that no HIV positive donations had been made in recent years.

The outright ban on gay men donating blood had been introduced in 1992 after a tainted blood scandal that saw thousands of Canadians infected with HIV after receiving transfusions.

The Canadian Red Cross, which handled blood donations at the time, had failed to properly test and screen donors.

As many as 8,000 Canadians died, according to a public inquiry. And Canadian media reported at the time that people in Japan, Germany and Britain were also infected by blood products sent abroad.

France, Spain, Italy, Israel and Britain have similarly moved recently to loosen restrictions on blood donations.

A.Smith--SFF