The Toulouse homodonor collective led a symbolic action this Friday morning on the occasion of World Blood Donor Day. In a video that has just been made public, the collective challenges the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, by calling for systematic tests after each transfusion, to find out the risk of HIV infection.
On the occasion of World Blood Donor Day, this Friday in Toulouse, the Toulouse Homodonneur collective led an action in front of the blood donation center, Osète room at Espace Duranti.
Around 12 o’clock, a dozen activists arrested passersby and donors who were waiting their turn, offering them red, white roses … The objective of this operation was to raise awareness among the general public to donate blood and remind the exclusion which concerns populations at risk and in particular homosexuals.
This action preceded the arrest of Olivier Véran, the Minister of Health, in a video that activists released this afternoon.
“We request tests from recipients”
With a message. Statistics from La Santé publique France indicate that “every two years there is only one HIV infection through blood donation”, underlines Frédéric Pecharman, president of the homodonor collective of Toulouse, “this represents a contamination on 6.4 million blood donation. We require testing after each transfusion with recipients as this estimate is delusional. If we test everyone we will be able to know the reality of HIV infection in France, via blood donation ”.
According to the Toulouse homodonor collective, “since 2002, no case of contamination has been observed and therefore the Minister of Health is required to systematically perform tests with recipients because if there is a risk, he is responsible would not be – in terms of public health. On the other hand, if the tests are negative, this would allow homodonorers to be reinstated in blood donations
One in six million chances of being infected with HIV
Populations at risk have been banned from donating blood for more than 35 years, following a circular of June 20, 1983, in the midst of the global AIDS epidemic. After several directives in recent years, it is only since April 2, 2020, that the former Minister of Health, Agnès Buzyn, eased the ban, by authorizing homosexuals to donate blood “subject to a four-month sexual abstinence preceding donation “. “We consider that it is always a maintenance of exclusion,” adds Fréderic Pecharman.
During a blood transfusion, the recipient has a one in six million chance of being infected. By integrating populations at risk into blood donation, and therefore homosexuals, this risk would be of “one in four million chances”.
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