Hema-Quebec says plasma donation will be more inclusive for sexually active gay men in the fall

A man gives blood in Montreal, on November 29, 2012. A new blood-donation policy came into effect across Canada on Monday, officially nixing the lifelong ban that prevented men who have had sex with men from giving blood. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

Hema-Quebec is announcing that starting next fall, plasma donation will become more inclusive in Quebec as more men who have sex with men will be able to donate plasma.

The blood donation organization adds that this decision by Health Canada will not affect the safety of plasma recipients.

Hema-Quebec will abandon the current three-month exclusion period for plasma donation for all men who have sex with men and are sexually active. Eligibility to donate plasma will be based on an individualized assessment of risk behaviours, rather than on the person's membership in a group considered to be at risk.

The new approach ensures that anyone who comes forward to donate plasma will be asked if they have had sex and, if so, what their recent sexual behaviours have been. Men who have had the same sexual partner in the past three months will qualify to donate, as long as they meet the other screening criteria.

To explain that this announcement concerns only plasma donations for the time being, Héma-Québec pointed out that the processing of plasma for the manufacture of medications involves additional safety measures not found in blood and platelet donations.

Hema-Quebec pointed out that the new approach will make it possible to collect evidence that will be used, in a second phase, to extend the measure to blood and platelet donations.

In Hema-Quebec's opinion, this two-step approach has a higher level of acceptability for regulatory authorities and blood product recipient groups.

The policy of rejecting men who have recently had sex with men from donating blood or plasma was implemented in 1992 after thousands of Canadians were infected with HIV and hepatitis C through contaminated blood products.

Donor eligibility criteria have changed since then. In 2019, Health Canada approved requests from Canadian Blood Services and Hema-Quebec to reduce the period of time that men must abstain from sexual activity with other men before donating blood.

The one-year deferral was then reduced to three months.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on March 25, 2022.