Breaking news: Monogamous gay and bisexual men will be allowed to donate blood under planned FDA guidance, easing decades-long restrictions. New rules will focus on sexual behaviors, regardless of gender, that pose a higher risk of transmitting HIV.
who received blood transfusions became infected before scientists realized that the HIV virus that caused the disease could be transmitted by blood.The FDA placed restrictions on blood donations by gay men, who had higher rates of HIV infection because the virus spreads more easily in smaller sexual networks and more efficientlythan vaginal sex.
This will allow sexually active men in monogamous relationships with other men to give blood for the first time since 1985. It could also mean women will be barred from giving blood for the first time if they’ve had anal sex with a new partner, depending on the final details of the questionnaire, even though heterosexual anal intercourse has not been a major focus on public health efforts to contain HIV.
Howard Forman, a 57-year-old Yale School of Medicine professor, started donating blood when he turned 18 in 1983, proudly carrying his donor card. But a few years after the FDA banned donations by men who have sex with men, Forman became ineligible and felt a sense of loss.Similar stories of disappointment and rejection would play out over the following decades.
Kutscher left the gym feeling ashamed and embarrassed. But after a few days, he started organizing a student effort to review the FDA’s policy on blood donors. That led to volunteer work as an HIV testing counselor, then medical school and a career in public health. Kutscher, an addiction medicine fellow at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said he looks forward to being able to donate his O positive, the most common blood type.
The reason for the three-month deferral period, according to Khandelwal in Canada, is that testing for blood-borne viruses, which include hepatitis B and C as well as HIV, “is not perfect.” While viruses may be detected in a few weeks, the three-month period provides a generous “buffer” for detecting harmful viruses, she said.
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