Louise O'Reilly
Question:479. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Health when he plans to defer the lifetime MSM blood donation ban to the one year deferral period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34553/16]
View answerTuesday, 15 November 2016
Questions (479)
Written answers
In June of this year, I accepted a recommendation from the Irish Blood Transfusion Service that (a) the lifetime deferral policy for men who have sex with men (MSM) from donating blood should be reduced to a period of one year following their last sexual encounter with a man and (b) all donors who have had a sexually transmitted infection (STI) should be deferred from donating blood for a period of at least five years from that infection (current deferral periods vary depending on the STI concerned).
The IBTS advise that these changes will be implemented by the end of January 2017.