Australian authorities have lifted a ban that prevented sexually active gay and bisexual men from donating blood and plasma.
The ban will be officially lifted on 14 July, making Australia the only country in the world to remove all sexual activity-based restrictions for blood and plasma donation.
The previous rules barred gay and bisexual men, and transgender women who have sex with men, from donating blood. The rules were initially introduced to decrease the risk of HIV transmission through blood from higher-risk groups.
Lifeblood, the national agency for donation services formally known as Australia's Red Cross Lifeblood, estimates the rule change will allow more than 600,000 people in the country to donate plasma.
Lifeblood said the rule change meant "most people, including gay and bisexual men, and anyone who takes PrEP or pre-exposure prophylaxis, will be able to donate plasma without a wait period, providing they meet all other eligibility criteria".
"Extensive research and modelling show that there will be no impact on the safety of the plasma supply with this change," the national blood, breast milk and microbiota donation service added.
However, people taking the HIV prevention drug will only be allowed to donate plasma, and will be barred from donating blood. People with HIV or those with a partner with HIV will be the only group prevented from donating either.
Lifeblood will no longer ask men if they had sex with men in the past three months. Instead, they will be given the same questions about sexual activity, regardless of their gender or sexuality.
People with new or multiple partners will also be able to donate if they have not had anal sex in three months, the authorities said.
Those in a sexual relationship of six months or more with a single partner will be able to donate blood. Lifeblood said the blood donation questionnaire change needed a "little bit of work" and will be implemented in 2026.
“We're excited to be able to welcome more people from across the community into our donor centres from next month," Lifeblood chief medical officer Jo Pink told News Breakfast. "We now anticipate an extra 24,000 donors and 95,000 extra donations of plasma to be made each year.”
He said the organisation was in the process of taking steps before implementing the new gender-neutral assessments, including working with state and territory governments to change the donor questionnaire.
Dash Heath-Paynter, the chief executive of Health Equity Matters, said the change "potentially unlocks thousands of donations of life-saving plasma".
"Members of the LGBTQIA+ community can now help those whose lives depend on plasma donations without a donation deferral period," Mr Heath-Paynter was quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as saying.
