Lifetime MSM blood ban to be lifted in January

The lifetime ban on blood donation by men who have sex with men (MSM) will be lifted on 16 January 2017, the Irish Independent reports.

Health Minister Simon Harris announced an end to the ban in July following a recommendation from the board of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS).

A legal challenge in the High Court, aimed at overturning the ban, was dropped in the wake of the announcement.

At the time, solicitor Gareth Noble of Dublin firm KOD Lyons said the litigants still did not “know the timeline for the change in policy”.

Under the new rules, men whose last sexual contact with another man was more than 12 months ago will be free to donate blood if they meet the other donor selection criteria.

The move mirrors a similar shift in policy in Northern Ireland, where a lifetime ban was replaced with a one-year deferral from 1 September 2016 on the initiative of Health Minister Michelle O’Neill.

The move in Northern Ireland followed a Court of Appeal ruling in March, which overturned the High Court’s previous decision that the blood ban was irrational and infected with apparent bias.