Photo by ep_jhu
For the past 30 years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has restricted gay and bisexual men from donating blood, citing the risk of HIV contamination. Today, that all changes—with one controversial restriction.
“As part of today’s finalized blood donor deferral guidance, the FDA is changing its recommendation that men who have sex with men (MSM) be indefinitely deferred—a policy that has been in place for approximately 30 years—to 12 months since the last sexual contact with another man,” the FDA announced in a release.
The U.S. blood banking system also halts donations from people who’ve had sex with a prostitute “or an intravenous drug user” in the past 12 months, the Associated Press reported.
The FDA says the one-year ban on blood donations made by gay and bisexual men reflects the most current scientific evidence, but others beg to differ.
According to Dan Bruner of Whitman-Walker Health, “the deferral period should be no longer than 30 days, given that with current testing technology an HIV infection can be detected in donated blood within several weeks of exposure.” And even then, he continues, “those that would be subject to the deferral period should be able to donate blood if they agree to return for an HIV test 30 days after donating.”
The non-profit Whitman-Walker center has served D.C. residents since 1978, one year after the start of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S. While they offer primary health services, a large portion of their mission is providing HIV education, prevention, and testing services. In its recommendations to the FDA in July, the organization sited nucleic acid amplification or NAT technology as the most advanced testing technology with a window period of less than a month. And a fourth-generation antibody/antigen testing method takes slightly longer window, the center said.
“It is ridiculous and counter to the public health that a married gay man in a monogamous relationship can’t give blood, but a promiscuous straight man who has had hundreds of opposite sex partners in the last year can,” said Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), LGBT Equality Caucus Co-Chair in a release, accusing the FDA of basing its policy on outdated stereotypes.
The one-year ban matches policies in countries including Australia, Japan and the U.K. No other country has a deferral period less than a year, the FDA said, and at this point, they’re not the ones to take the leap.
“Moving forward, the FDA will continue to reevaluate its blood donor deferral policies as new scientific information becomes available,” the organization said.
