A lock has been removed for homosexual men who were previously excluded from donating blood if they had sex with other men for three months. Health Canada announced on Thursday that it has agreed to remove this barrier.
The federal government says it is responding to a request from Canadian Blood Services (CBS), which aims to implement these changes by the end of September.
Last December, the SCS spoke publicly against this exception, before sending his request to Health Canada.
The new approach to be put in place will make it possible to simply exclude any donor who engages in high-risk sexual behavior, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation, says Health Canada. Therefore, a new selection questionnaire will be developed.
Héma-Québec has already pleaded for the removal of this obstacle, but only for donations of blood plasma, the liquid part of the blood.
According to Héma-Québec, the risk could be reduced more clearly for blood plasma donations due to pathogen inactivation treatment.
Source: Radio-Canada
