Autres nouvelles Time to end these blood bans: U.S. policy on gay and bi male blood donations is a failure—and Canada is repeating the same mistakes

Canada announced this week that the country plans to significantly reduce the waiting period imposed on gay men who wish to donate blood. The current policy stipulates that any man who has sex with men (MSM) is banned from giving blood if he’s engaged in sexual intercourse in the past five years. But according to officials, that will be lowered to just one year.

The change was approved after Canadian Blood Services and Héma-Québec submitted proposals that would bring the Great White North in line with countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden, France, New Zealand, and the United States, all of whom mandate 12-month blood bans. “These proposals included scientific data demonstrating that the change would not result in any reduction in safety to recipients of donated blood,” a press release from Health Canada stated.