A BAN on gay and bisexual men giving blood should be overturned, MSPs are due to be told today.
Rob McDowall, a campaigner on gay rights, has branded current blood-transfusion policy "homophobic" for not accepting blood from men who have had homosexual relationships.

Mr McDowall is due to make representations to the Scottish Parliament's petitions committee, demanding an end to the ban. However, ScotBlood, the Scottish blood transfusion service, said it would not change the rules due to a higher risk of blood from gay men being infected with HIV.

The last figures held by the Office of National Statistics for HIV and Aids were recorded in 2005.

They show the number of heterosexuals with Aids outstripped the number of homosexuals from 1999. But they also revealed that 46 per cent of new HIV cases between 1996 and 2005 involved gay and bisexual men, even though they statistically represent just 5-10 per cent of the population.

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Dr Brian McClelland, strategy director at ScotBlood, said: "This donor-selection rule is often misunderstood and perceived to be discriminatory. This is not the case.

"While the absolute number of cases of HIV in heterosexuals diagnosed annually is greater than for men who have had sex with men, when the size of the respective populations is taken into account it can be seen that the relative risk of exposure is very different."

He added: "Figures would indicate a man who has had sex with a man is seven times more likely to contract HIV than a heterosexual.

"Abolishing the rule for gay men would increase the risk of an HIV-infected donation entering the blood supply by about five times, and changing the rule to allow gay men to donate one year after they last had sex with a man would increase the risk by 60 per cent."

Full article here.