Blood Service Keeps Ban On Gay Donors

According to the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service, same gender sexual activity between men will continue to be a barrier to donating blood in this country.

Restrictions in neighbouring Sweden on blood donations by gay men were recently eased. As of March, they will not be permanently banned from donating, but will not be allow to give blood for a year after having sexual contact.
The director for donations at Finland's Blood Service, Satu Pastila, says that there are no plans to introduce such a system here.
"Sexual contact between men will continue to bring a permanent ban on donating blood, as is the practice in nearly all European and other industrialized countries," says Pustila.
According to Pustila, during the 1980s the HIV virus was spread especially through male homosexual activity. At that time, a decision was made in Finland to restrict blood donations.
"Reversing the decision would require that the risks within this segment of the population would be the same as the population in general, and that is not the case in Finland. The risk of an HIV infection from sex between men is higher by about a factor of ten, than it is for the rest of the population," explains Satu Pustila.
A single sexual encounter between men is enough to gain a lifetime ban.