On 21 December, the US Food and Drug Administration recommended that gay and bisexual men should be permitted to donate blood – provided they haven’t had sex in over a year. Although clinics can still decide whether to follow the recommendations, the change brings the FDA into line with regulatory bodies in the UK and Australia.
Men who have sex with men have been “indefinitely deferred” from donating blood in the US since 1983.
Despite blood banks screening all donations, the controversial policy was brought in as a response to the risk of HIV transmission via transfusions.
The FDA cited recent epidemiological data as the motivation for the change.
“We have taken great care to ensure this policy revision is backed by sound science and continues to protect our blood supply,” said the FDA’s Acting Commissioner Stephen Ostroff.
Still discriminatory
The news received mixed reactions from the gay community. In a public statement, the National Gay Blood Drive, an activist group, argued that the new policy is still discriminatory.
“While gay and bisexual men will be eligible to donate their blood and help save lives under this 12-month deferral, countless more will continue to be banned solely on the basis of their sexual orientation and without medical or scientific reasoning.”
Shaun Griffin of the Terrence Higgins Trust, an HIV charity based in the UK, says the new US guidelines are a step in the right direction. “The lifelong ban was archaic and out of date. However, both in the UK and in the US, the rules falls short.” He says the data on which the one-year ban for men who sleep with men was based is now out of date.
In November, the UK government announced that it would conduct a review of the one-year ban.
(Image: ©Jorge Lopez/Reuters)
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