Since 1983 The FDA has banned men who have had sex with other men from
donating blood.
The F.D.A. rules on blood donation generally include very wide margins of error. For example, it bars anyone who has traveled in areas where malaria is common from giving blood for a year, even though malaria symptoms are almost unmistakable — chills and fever — and virtually always appear within 40 days. The agency also has a 12-month waiting period for heterosexuals who, among other activities, have sex with prostitutes or with people who inject drugs.
Restrictions on donors were written when H.I.V. testing was slower and less refined. Today, some tests can detect the virus in blood as little as nine days after infection.
The FDA has released a new
draft of guidelines—for the public to comment on over the next 60 days.
The use of donor education material, specific deferral questions, and advances in HIV donor testing (e.g., HIV antibody assays, p24 antigen assays, and nucleic acid tests (NAT)) have reduced the risk of HIV transmission from blood transfusion from about 1 in 2500 units prior to HIV testing to a current estimated residual risk of about 1 in 1.47 million transfusions. The development of pathogen inactivation procedures for products manufactured from pooled plasma in the 1980s improved the safety of these products by inactivating lipid-enveloped viruses. No transmissions of HIV, hepatitis B virus (HBV), or hepatitis C virus (HCV) have been documented through U.S.-licensed plasma derived products in the past two decades.
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Although not making a change would maintain the current level of safety of the blood
supply, as noted above, there is evidence that the deferral policy is becoming less
effective over time. In addition, the policy is perceived by some as discriminatory.
In acknowledging the scientific developments of the past 2 decades, the FDA is attempting to bring our country up to speed
with progress.
The shift puts the United States on par with many European countries, including Britain, which adjusted its lifetime ban in favor of a 12-month restriction in 2011.
Most men’s health advocates called the move long overdue, and said that the overall ban was not based on the latest science and that it perpetuated a stigma about gay men as a risk to the health of the nation. Legal experts said the change brought an important national health policy in line with other legal and political rights for gay Americans, like permitting gay people to marry and to serve openly in the military.