US regulator lifts lifetime ban on gay blood donations

On Monday, the FDA announced a new policy that allows gay and bisexual men to donate blood if they have abstained from having sex with another man for the previous year.

Jason Cianciotto, GMHC’s public policy director, stands with a map showing worldwide blood donation guidelines for men who have sex with men, in the organization’s offices in NY on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013.

Several countries, including the United Kingdom and Australia, have 12-month deferrals.

Jordan Moll Vigrass, organizer of Blood Is Blood, says a heterosexual with numerous partners within a 12-month period would not be looked upon in the same way as the gay or bisexual man involved with just one committed partner.

“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”, said Dan Bruner, senior director of health at Whitman-Walker. It reads as follows: “AABB, America’s Blood Centers and the American Red Cross are pleased that the FDA has released its final guidance regarding deferral criteria for men who have had sex with men (MSM). In particular, individual risk assessment has not yet been demonstrated in a setting with HIV epidemiology similar to the United States’ epidemiology to reliably predict men or women who are at higher risk of HIV infection”, Dr. Marks said.

Elimination of any deferral period, and reliance on testing only, was “predicted to lead to a four-fold increase in HIV transmission through the blood supply”, Marks said. “An increase of this magnitude is not acceptable”, he said.

The FDA said its policy change reflects the most current scientific evidence and to help ensure the continued safety of the blood supply by reducing the risk of HIV transmission. Australia previously had indefinite blood donor deferral policy for MSM but chose to change it after performing studies and evaluating more than eight million units of donated blood using a national blood surveillance system.

The push for a new policy gained momentum in 2006, when the Red Cross, the American Association of Blood Banks, and America’s Blood Centers called the ban “medically and scientifically unwarranted”.

But local LGBT community leaders say the rules are still limiting and discriminatory.

For commercial sex workers and injection drug users, insufficient data are available to support a change to the existing deferral recommendations at this time, the FDA said. So, this reversal marks only partial progress, according to gay rights advocates who point out that it’s not who you are but what you do that determines your risk for HIV. The FDA first proposed lifting the ban last December.