After a ban of more than three decades, gay men in the United States may soon be allowed to donate blood, according to new recommendations released today by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The new recommendations were released in draft form by the FDA and there will be a 30 day comment period for the public to weigh in on their opinions of the new regulations.
The FDA ban, which began during the AIDS crisis, has been controversial in recent years with multiple activist organizations and medical associations calling the practice discriminatory.
Under the current regulations, men who have had sex with other men since 1977 are banned from ever donating blood in the United States. The ban dates back to 1983 and was started after doctors released that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, could be transmitted through transfusions of blood.
If the new policy is implemented, gay and bisexual men will be allowed to donate blood if they have abstained from sex with men for a year. A year long deferral for gay and bisexual men has been enacted by other countries, including Japan, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Australia.
The FDA determined that a one year deferral would likely be long enough to safeguard the donor supply thanks in part to more sensitive tests for the virus and after seeing evidence from other countries that have already implemented the one year deferral policy. According to the FDA, the chance of contracting HIV from a blood transfusion is 1 in 1.47 million.
Multiple medical associations have supported ending the ban in recent years. After the FDA released the new guidelines, the American Medical Association released a statement supporting the efforts of the FDA.
"The American Medical Association (AMA) commends the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for taking a step in the right direction to end the lifetime ban that prohibits men who have had sex with men (MSM) from ever donating blood," AMA President Robert Wah said in a statement. "The AMA's policy supports using scientifically based deferral periods that are consistently and fairly applied to donors based on their risk level."
David Stacey, the government affairs director of the Human Rights Campaign, said people should be evaluated on their risk behavior not just their sexual orientation.
"While the new policy is a step in the right direction toward an ideal policy that reflects the best scientific research, it still falls far short of a fully acceptable solution because it continues to stigmatize gay and bisexual men," Stacy says. "This policy prevents men from donating life-saving blood based solely on their sexual orientation rather than actual risk to the blood supply."
Ryan James Yezak, who has advocated for the end of the ban as director of the National Gay Blood Drive, said he supported the new recommendations.
"We are pleased to see the FDA has issued the draft guidance and we look forward to organizing the National Gay Blood Drive in conjunction with the implementation of the revised policy," Yezak said in a statement, adding that advocates still want donor deferrals to be based on risky behavior, rather than simply sexual orientation.
