The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Thursday that gay and bisexual men in America can donate blood with fewer restrictions. Donations may also be possible if you have an active sex life. Previously, only queer men who had not had sex in the three months before donating were allowed to donate blood. Until 2015, gay men were not allowed to donate blood at all.
However, there are still certain limitations. Those interested must now complete a questionnaire – not only homosexuals, but also all other men and women. This should be used to individually assess HIV risk and whether blood donation is possible. For example, someone who claims to have had anal intercourse with a new partner in the past three months is still not allowed to donate.
The guidelines also exclude potential blood donors who take drugs to prevent HIV infection. A restriction that, according to the authority, is intended to prevent false negative results in blood tests.
The FDA bases its new guidelines on those from Canada and the United Kingdom. The US agency would have been working for months to change the guidelines. In addition to data from other countries, an American study was used in which this method was investigated.
There is currently a blood shortage in the US and blood donations are urgently needed. During and after the corona pandemic, donations decreased. The updated guidelines now make it possible to maximize the number of potential donors while reducing the risk of HIV transmission in an evidence-based manner.
GLAAD, an LGBTQ organization, welcomes the change. It is the end of a “dark and discriminatory past rooted in fear and homophobia”. However, the organization is not completely satisfied. She criticizes the FDA’s decision that gay men taking drugs to prevent HIV should not donate blood. This leads to “unnecessary stigma”. “This bias could cost lives,” GLAAD said in a statement Thursday.
The FDA states that these drugs are effective in reducing the spread of HIV through sexual contact. However, she cautions that blood transfusions may carry a higher risk of infection. “While HIV is not sexually transmitted from individuals with undetectable levels of the virus, transmission of HIV through blood transfusions is not, because a blood transfusion is given intravenously and transfusion involves a large volume of blood compared to exposure through sexual contact” , the FDA said. said.
Blood centers will now have to update their policies and retrain staff.
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Source: Blick
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