The Ministry of Health and Welfare is planning to ease a ban on blood donations by gay men by May at the earliest, allowing them to donate blood five years after their last sexual contact with another man.
Current regulations, which have been enforced for 28 years, impose a lifetime ban on blood donations by men who have had sexual encounters with other men.
However, many countries have abolished such lifelong prohibitions, including the US government, which overturned its 30-year ban on donations by gay men in 2015, instead instituting a 12-month deferral period.
Calling the policy discriminatory, a petition for the removal of the ban was submitted to the government-funded online public policy platform last year, and the ministry held an advisory committee meeting in September last year to discuss the issue.
Committee members suggested that as HIV testing has greatly improved, Taiwan can follow the examples of other countries by setting a deferral period and observing the consequences, Food and Drug Administration medicinal products division deputy chief Chi Jo-feng (祁若鳳) said yesterday.
As the Centers for Disease Control has also suggested setting a deferral period, the ministry is considering lifting the ban and setting the deferral period at five years.
The proposed amendment is still being reviewed and might be announced late next month, with the new policy taking effect in May at the earliest, if there are no strong objections to the proposal.
The proposal also includes a temporary blood donation ban on people who have visited areas where the Zika virus has spread, have been infected by the virus or have had sexual contact with a person infected by the virus.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
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