FDA Overturns a 30-Year Ban on Blood Donations by Gay Men

On Monday, FDA released a final rule that eases a decades-old policy that prohibited men who have sex with men from donating blood, The Hillreports (Ferris, The Hill, 12/21).

The lifetime ban was put in place during the early years of the AIDS crisis and was meant to protect the blood supply from what was a then little-understood disease.

“It simply can not be justified in light of current scientific research and updated blood screening technology”, Stacy asserted.

The FDA added that its efforts to protect the nation’s blood supply – including deferrals for members of high-risk groups and more accurate tests to screen donor blood – have drastically reduced the risk of spreading HIV through blood transfusions. For example, there’s now a maximum one-year deferral policy in the United States for blood donations by men who have had sex with an HIV-positive woman or commercial sex workers.

“In reviewing our policies to help reduce the risk of HIV transmission through blood products, we rigorously examined several alternative options, including individual risk assessment”, Marks said.

Although men and women of all descriptions have sexual relationship with strangers, HIV is significantly more common among gay men.

In addition, the agency announced that people who have hemophilia as well as related disorders of blood clotting remained banned from blood donation due to the possible harm they might suffer from the larges needles.

The head of the Gay Alliance in Rochester calls it a “baby step in the right direction”, but Scott Fearing still finds a new US policy on blood donations openly discriminatory. According to FDA, studies have not evaluated the safety of shorter deferral periods (Kaplan, “Science Now”, Los Angeles Times, 12/21).

The Food and Drug Administration said its decision to reverse the policy was based on an examination of the latest science which shows that an indefinite ban is not necessary to prevent transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. According to Svoboda, a “huge percentage” of MSM still will not be eligible to donate blood under the new policy (Allday, San Francisco Chronicle, 12/21). Peter Marks, MD, PhD, deputy director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said: “Ultimately, the 12-month deferral window is supported by the best available scientific evidence, at this point in time, relevant to the USA population”.