Your biology can also affect the patient. If you’ve had sex with a male or transgender partner in the last 3 months, you’ll need to wait 3 months from that contact before you can donate. So I just wish more thought was put into the criteria,” he said. Yes, but there are a couple of restrictions. “If these rules are purely for fear of spreading HIV then it is discrimination because HIV is not just a gay disease. He said he understood the health risks, but said it was based on such an “old” rule. “When I hear radio commercials or see ads calling for more people to give blood because stocks are low, it frustrates me because I am willing and able as I’m sure a lot of other gay men are too,” Mr Odlum said. Perth man Ian Odlum said he was “frustrated” by the restrictions. Rules were eased in Australia earlier this year, reducing the 12-month waiting time between having sex and donating blood, by three quarters. Homosexual men were originally banned from giving blood because of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. The Red Cross states the donation criteria exists to ensure the blood collection process is “as safe as possible” for donors and patients. Nelson points out he can't donate blood for a year after he returns from countries where he might have gotten infected with malaria.Men taking pre-exposure HIV prophylaxis (PrEP) need to wait 12 months before donating blood because it impacts on the ability to detect HIV in tests. Kenrad Nelson, a professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who advised the FDA about the policy.
"The gay community and many people view blood donation as a civil right. Gay or bisexual men in monogamous relationships may be at much lower risk as donors than, say, promiscuous heterosexuals, Louie said.īut others are praising the new policy as a reasonable compromise. "It perpetuates the stigma that HIV is a gay disease," says Kelsey Louie, who heads Gay Men's Health Crisis, an advocacy group. Research in Australia indicates the policy would not jeopardize the safety of the blood supply.īut this has not satisfied many advocates. in line with other countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Britain, Marks says. Blood tests remain negative for about nine days after a person has been infected with HIV.Īfter weighing the arguments, Marks announced the FDA is finalizing a policy change it proposed last year. Others, however, have urged the FDA to keep the ban, saying that infected people can slip through the screening process.
They argue the policy is discriminatory because it singles out gay and bisexual men and that it is unnecessary because blood donors can be screened for HIV. In 1983, the FDA banned gay and bisexual men from ever being eligible to donate blood to protect people receiving blood transfusions from the possibility of getting infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS.īut gay-rights advocates and many medical groups have been urging the FDA to lift the ban for years. "Relying on sound scientific evidence, we've taken great care to ensure the revised policy continues to protect our blood supply," said Peter Marks, deputy director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. The FDA announced Monday that it was replacing a lifetime prohibition with a new policy that will allow gay and bisexual men to donate blood, but only if they have not had sexual contact with another man for at least one year. The Food and Drug Administration is relaxing a 32-year-old ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men. Gay and bisexual men were banned from donating blood over concern that HIV could contaminate the blood supply.