Argentine blood bank aims to boost supply through donors’ club

The sentiment has reverberated throughout the gay community in the aftermath of Sunday’s massacre at the Pulse nightclub that killed 49 people and wounded 53 others.

Indy Pride scheduled a blood drive at its Indianapolis headquarters Tuesday evening, but is also encouraging ineligible people to volunteer their time or send money to victims’ funds. Millions of gay men, despite a willingness to give, haven’t been allowed to answer the call.

The Department of Health recently announced that blood has actually become safer since the outright ban on gay men donating blood was lifted.

Some students at Ithaca College in NY are voicing their opposition to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) safety policies for blood donation. The FDA says it’s to prevent the transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

“It doesn’t make sense”, said Jorge Hamana, a pathologist who donated blood Tuesday at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

The two publications included national requirements that blood banks will have to adhere to, to ensure maximum compliance and the guidelines standardising the screening processes during times of donation.

“It compounds the fear and anger that people are already feeling”, he said.

According to United Blood Services, our area blood blanks throughout New Mexico went on appeal due to dwindling blood supply.

McFarland said the Red Cross is proactive with their drives, reminding residents that tragedies aren’t specific to any one location.

The FDA does not allow blood agencies to accept donations from gay and bisexual men who acknowledge they have had same-sex sexual contact within the past 12 months. Now it’s only those who have had sex with another man within the a year ago.

“Having 100 percent voluntary donors is ideal”, said Amerise, because “when a donor is pressured (by a family medical emergency or by need for money) he may not answer questions honestly”.

“Yesterday, a guy came in saying his friends were in the hospital and that he had the same blood type”.

A 2014 study in Transfusion found that “the risk of HIV among MSM [men who have sex with men] is more than twenty-fold higher than that of men who have sex with multiple female partners and women who have sex with multiple male partners”.

“There are some that still feel like this is a gay man’s disease, but it’s our job at the San Antonio AIDS foundation to provide that education to all, to let them know that all are at risk for HIV infection”, said Vanessa Zuniga, the San Antonio AIDS Foundation director of prevention education.