The State Council maintains the year of abstinence for homosexuals who want to donate blood. The Mousse, Stop Homophobie, Idaho France Committee and Local Elected Against AIDS associations had seized the Council of State in order to lift the obligation of abstinence for homosexual men who wanted to donate blood. This request has just been rejected.
“Protect the safety of recipients”
Since July 2016, blood donation had been open to gay men, which was prohibited to them since 1983. A series of conditions govern this donation, in particular that of abstinence 12 months mandatory. And despite strong demand from associations, they will not be changed.
The Council of State explains its decision in a statement : “The health authorities must give priority to the measures best able to protect the safety of recipients when the scientific and epidemiological data available do not allow the existence of a risk to be ruled out”. The institution explains that 62% of regular donors whose donation was found to be contaminated with HIVwere homosexual men who had not complied with the contraindication for abstinence “despite a previously negative serology”. On the other hand, the press release argues that for a certain period of time, the AIDS virus may not be detected “even by the most effective screening tests”.
The work of the Institute for Public Health Surveillance is cited, which shows that “the prevalence of HIV carriers is approximately 70 times higher in men who have had sex with men”. The Council of State finally specifies that “the Minister of Social Affairs and Health relied not on sexual orientation but on sexual behavior and did not adopt an illegal discriminatory measure”.
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