New rules to allow gay and bi men in long-term relationships to donate blood
Recommendations from the FAIR (For the Assessment of Individualised Risk) steering group, to enable a more individualised way of assessing safe blood donations, have been accepted in full by the Department of Health and Social Care, which means men who have sex with men (MSM) in a long-term relationship will be able to give blood from summer 2021.Led by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), FAIR – a collaboration of UK blood services, Public Health England, University of Nottingham and LGBTQ+ / sexual health charities, including Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) and Stonewall – came together last year with a shared determination to lead the change towards a more individualised risk assessment for donation.The group’s analysis of the latest evidence.
