From March 16, homosexual men will have access to blood donation under the same conditions as heterosexuals. A decision has been expected for nearly forty years.
by Elia Ducoulombier
They waited for it for years. Homosexual men will no longer have to justify a four-month abstinence period to access the blood donation. The Ministry of Health announced, Tuesday, January 11, the publication of a decree establishing identical selection criteria for all donors, regardless of their sexual orientation. He will take effect on March 16th.
The challenge of this text, described as “Major Societal Evolution” by the Director General of Health, Jerome Solomon, is to remove any discrimination, a principle registered in the law since the promulgation of bioethic law in August 2021. The new questionnaire, which needs to be completed before each donation, will only identify “individual practices at risk” such as multi-partnership or drug use.
“If equal access to donations is guaranteed, it is a major step forward, says Lucile Jomat, president of the SOS Homophobia association. But we are waiting to see the formulation of the new questions before asserting it Fully. “You have to wait another two months to see this decree apply. A necessary time, according to the department, to enable all actors to appropriate the new provisions and avoid discrimination related to a misunderstanding of the text.
Another criterion related to treatments
Equal access to blood donation is a fight led for many years by LGBT associations. Indeed, men with sex with other men were excluded in 1983 at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. It was only in 2016 that homosexual men were able to be donor again, provided they have no sexual relationship during the twelve months preceding the gift. Four years later, the abstinence period had been reduced to four months, including for couples in stable relationship. In the case of heterosexual persons, this period applies only in the case of recent relationships with several partners.
This difference in treatment was so far justified by a surrevener related to the prevalence of HIV contaminations in homosexual men. But in recent decades, this figure has dropped considerably and the risk of transmitting HIV by transfusion too. In 1990, a donation on 310,000 could be positive to HIV and not detected. Today, this probability is forty times less.
In parallel with the opening of the blood donation to homosexual men, the government has announced a new selection criterion. People taking pre or post-exposure treatment for HIV (PREP or PEP) will have to wait four months after the last record of the drug before being able to give their blood. These powerful antivirals can distort HIV screening in blood pockets. But that’s not the only explanation. “These people are generally related to risk practices, says Cathy Bliem, Executive Director of the French Blood Establishment (EFS). This indirect question makes it possible to highlight them.” For Lucile Jomat, this new criterion can be source Discrimination: “If this criterion justified itself by the medical aspect, why not. But associate those who take the PREP and PEP, mostly homosexual men, at risk practices, it remains stigmatizing.”
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