“Discriminatory” restrictions on homosexuals donating blood should be relaxed, according to one of the world’s leading AIDS researchers. Writing in the latest issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Mark Wainberg, head of the McGill University AIDS Centre, says, “With the development of more sensitive HIV detection tests, the potential occurrence of a false-negative result is now remote”. Lifting the ban would increase the blood supply substantially. "Current policy is counterproductive in regard to loss of donors, good will, student protests, potential boycotts, lawsuits etc." says Dr Wainberg.

This is the latest ammunition for gay activists around the world who want the ban on donating blood to be lifted. For example, in the United States a man who had sex with a man after 1977 is permanently barred from giving blood.

A spokesman for Canadian Blood Services said in response to Dr Wainberg’s idea: “The key for us is that there isn’t medical consensus on the matter… Patient safety comes first and we won’t make any policy changes that would put the blood supply at risk.”