Administration has reversed a three-
decades-old ban, traceing back to
the start of the Aids epidemic, on
blood donations from gay and
bisegxwal men. It has announced in a new policy
that gay and bisegxwal men who have
abstained from sex for one year will
now be allowed to donate blood. "The FDA's responsibility is to
maintain a high level of blood
product safety for people whose
lives depend on it," FDA Acting
Commissioner Stephen Ostroff said
in an agency news release. "We have taken great care to ensure this
policy revision is backed by sound
science and continues to protect our
blood supply." The FDA said it was changing its
policy based on data from other
countries that show allowing such
donations would not increase the
risk of HIV-tainted blood entering
America's blood supply. FDA officials have estimated that
about half of the people previously
barred from donating blood would be
able to donate under the new policy. "We've taken great care to ensure
that the revised policy continues to
protect our blood supply," Dr. Peter
Marks, deputy director of the FDA's
Center for Biologics Evaluation and
Research, said during a news conference Monday. The new recommendation includes
"a 12-month deferral period for the
most recent segxwal contact for men
who have sex with men, rather than
the existing indefinite deferral,"
Marks added. "As we recommend these changes,
we are reaffirming a commitment to
further progressing blood donor
deferral policies as new scientific
information becomes available,"
Marks said. The change will also better align the
FDA's donation policy for gay and
bisegxwal men with its policies
regarding other people potentially
exposed to HIV, the virus that
causes AIDS, officials said. For example, there's currently a
maximum one-year deferral policy in
the United States for blood
donations by men who have had sex
with an HIV-positive woman or
commercial sex workers. The same goes for women who have had sex
with HIV-positive men. However, segxwally active gay men in
a monogamous relationship would
not be allowed to donate blood under
the new policy. The FDA said it will also implement
a national blood surveillance system
that will help the agency monitor the
effect of the policy change and
ensure the safety of the blood
supply, health officials said. The American Red Cross has found
that the risk of an HIV-tainted blood
donation getting into the national
blood supply is about 1 in every 1.5
million units, agency officials said. The FDA adopted a permanent ban
on blood donations from men who
have sex with men at the dawn of
the Aids crisis. Proponents of lifting
the ban have said changing times
and technological advances have rendered the decades-old policy
obsolete. The FDA first proposed
lifting the ban last December. Other countries have already moved
to limit their bans on blood donations
from gay men in recent years.
Canada has changed its policy to a
five-year deferral policy (meaning
blood donation is allowed if the man has not had segxwal contact for five
years); the United Kingdom and
Australia have a one-year deferral
policy; and South Africa has a six-
month deferral policy.
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moralemike07
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