The government will allow gay men to donate blood: “The four-month AIDS requirement will be scrapped.”
According to TV2, the government wants to allow gay men in Denmark to donate blood without the “four-month” requirement that was passed in 2020, under which a gay man is prohibited from donating blood until four months have passed since his last sexual encounter. From 1988 until 2020, gay men were not allowed to donate blood at all, due to the AIDS epidemic.
Risks according to statistics
The old rules were reinstated based on statistics showing that gay men are more likely to contract HIV/AIDS, according to the Danish Health Authority, as reported by the Altinget newspaper website.
According to clinical assistant professor Morten Baje Hansen, head of the blood bank, there is no clear danger in abolishing the current four-month rule: “On the contrary, this will benefit us and make more people donate blood. HIV transmission through blood donation will not be terribly affected. This can be seen from studies in other countries,” Morten Baje Hansen told Politiken, as reported by TV2.
