The FDA has proposed updating blood donor screening questions to be gender-inclusive, in a long-sought move away from uniform exclusions for gay men and men who have sex with men.
and is already in place in Canada and the United Kingdom. The move steps away from policies set in place in the 1980s at the height of the AIDS epidemic.
“Donating blood is one of several really important symbolic methods of demonstrating one’s caring for other people,” FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf told. “We want to make that available to everyone possible in the context of a safe blood supply.” With the new protocol, all blood donors regardless of gender or sexual orientation who report having new or multiple sexual partners in the past 3 months would be asked about a history of having anal sex in the past 3 months. If they report having recent anal sex, they would be deferred from donation.
Under this screening format, donors who did not have new or multiple partners in the past 3 months would be eligible to donate blood.The FDA will gather public comment on the proposed changes and then, if approved, donation centers would need to implement the new screening questions. On that timeline, the new eligibility criteria would go into effect at the end of this year or in early 2024,
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