The FDA’s original ban on gay men donating blood was implemented as a means to prevent the spread of HIV through blood donations, back when there was not a simple way to detect HIV in blood.
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FDA policies also exclude other categories of people who are at risk of transmitting diseases through blood transfusions- like injecting drug users, those who have recently gotten tattoos and people who have traveled to certain areas.
In a notice published to the Federal Register, the FDA outlined that it “is inviting comments on the feasibility of moving from the existing time-based deferrals related to risk behaviors to alternate deferral options, such as the use of individual risk assessment”.
The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday called for comments on a policy that now requires men who have sex with other men to abstain from sex for a year before donating blood.
“The recommendations revised in December 2015, which are based on risk behaviors and not sexual orientation, are founded upon the best scientific information now available, and included a rigorous examination of several alternative options, including individual risk assessment”, Goodin said.
Democrat Mike Quigley, vice chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, wrote to the FDA Commissioner Robert Califf in the days following the attack.
Anyone interested can submit comments on the matter, as long as they’re backed up with scientific evidence, as the FDA aims to update its policies to reflect new scientific information. That policy, implemented a year ago, replaced the lifetime ban on blood donations from men who have had sex with men, although LGBT advocates have said the new deferral requirement is still essentially a ban.
The issue resurfaced in the wake of the mass shooting at an LGBT club in Orlando, when blood banks put out urgent calls for donors, which gay men could not respond to. A similar letter was signed by 22 senators. But many members of the LGBTQ community are still upset about being turned away when they tried to donate blood following the terrorist attack at a gay nightclub in Orlando.
“Moving towards an individual risk assessment would provide a fair, equitable nondiscriminatory blood donation policy, one based in science that allows all healthy Americans to safely donate blood”.
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Do you think the individual risk assessment is a step in the right direction? This would be an easy addition to the process. Instead I found this one from July 10, 2014.
