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The change is fairer and more inclusive, and allows us to undertake more individualised assessment of donor eligibility while maintaining blood safety. 'This is welcome news and comes as the result of extensive review by a panel of experts. New donor criteria will also defer those who have engaged in chem sex – defined as a drug taken immediately before or during sex to enhance sexual interaction – in the last three months or who have been treated for syphilis in the last 12 months.Dr Lorna McLintock, SNBTS Consultant in Donor Medicine, says: While the charity welcomed the update, she said “much more still needs to be done to tackle the challenges that lead to gay and bi men, along with other groups of people including black African communities, sex workers, and trans communities, being at higher risk of acquiring HIV and other sexually transmitted infections”. “We will continue to work with government to build on this progress and ensure that more people, including LGBT+ people, can donate blood safely in the future.” Nancy Kelley, chief executive of LGBT+ charity Stonewall, said: “This change will help ensure more gay and bi men can donate blood, and represents an important first step towards a donation selection policy entirely based on an individualised assessment of risk. He added: “With the great progress and certainty that our medical experts and systems have brought, we can now remove the barriers that have long been in place and that have meant that some LGBT+ people cannot easily donate blood.” In addition, Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething said: “This announcement will put an end to the discrimination many people in the LGBT+ community have faced.” “We are committed to equality and inclusion, and these changes will ensure a fairer and more up to date assessment of risk is applied to both men and women to identify whether donors may be at risk of a blood-borne virus infection,” he added. Scotland’s public health minister, Joe FitzPatrick, also welcomed the recommendations, which he said would “enable a more individualised risk assessment approach to blood donor safety checks while continuing to ensure the safe supply of blood to patients”. He described the move as a “positive step” that “recognises individuals for the actions they take, rather than their sexual preference”.
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Health secretary Matt Hancock said: “This landmark change to blood donation is safe and it will allow many more people, who have previously been excluded by donor selection criteria, to take the opportunity to help save lives.”
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“We are proud to have the safest blood supply in the world and I’m pleased to have concluded that these new changes to donor selection will keep blood just as safe,” she said. Su Brailsford, associate medical director at NHS Blood and Transplant and chair of FAIR, said she was pleased the group’s recommendations had been accepted. “This announcement will put an end to the discrimination many people in the LGBT+ community have faced” The FAIR steering group, a collaboration of UK blood services and LGBT+ charities led by NHS Blood and Transplant, came together last year to help lead the change towards a more individualised donor risk assessment.Ī report, published by FAIR today, proposed the move away from a three-month blanket ban for men who have had sex with men and, instead, to identify a wider range of “highest risk behaviours” applicable to all donors. Everyone will now be given a more individual risk assessment, which will see all potential donors being asked a few additional questions about their sexual behaviours.