The ban was imposed at the height of the mad cow disease scare and has not been revoked, even though predictions that thousands would die of the human form, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), turned out to be wrong.
According to British government figures, 156 deaths were linked to CJD in the 1990s. There have been hardly any cases since.
- Gay rights groups have filed a complaint with the European Commission over a French ban on blood donations by gay men unless they have abstained from sex for a year. They estimate that this means 93% of gay men are excluded. Until July 2016, gay and bisexual men could not donate at all under a 1983 ban.
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