"Right now there are really no large, major countries with shorter intervals than one year," Marks said during a teleconference. That country has had a one-year rule for active gay and bisexual men for over 10 years.įDA officials said there are no comparable data using shorter restriction periods. blood donations, based primarily on data from Australia. The FDA concluded that moving to a one-year abstinence requirement would not change the safety of U.S. The lifetime ban was put in place during the early years of the AIDS crisis and was intended to protect the blood supply from what was a then little-understood disease. Monday's policy shift was first proposed in late 2014 and follows years of lobbying by medical groups and gay rights groups, who said the previous ban was outdated and perpetuated negative stereotypes. "It simply cannot be justified in light of current scientific research and updated blood screening technology." "It continues to stigmatize gay and bisexual men," said David Stacy, of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S. Gay rights activists said the new policy is a "step in the right direction," but falls short. While the one-year-ban has been criticized by activists it matches policies in other countries, including Australia, Japan and the U.K. The Food and Drug Administration said it is replacing the lifetime ban with a new policy barring donations from men who have had sex with a man in the previous year. “”We want to show the FDA that the gay community, can and wants to contribute.WASHINGTON (CBS / AP) - The nation's three-decade-old ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men was formally lifted Monday, but major restrictions will continue to limit who can donate. “We have a lot of support from blood donation centers. Last year, members of senate–spearheaded by Senator Elizabeth Warren– wrote an open later to HHS holding them accountable to take action, based on the data. In 2013, they met again to hear updates on the research they requested when there are enough results, the HHS plans to bring the issue into a public forum. In 2010, the Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability (ACBSA) discussed the FDA policy and concluded that while the current policy isn’t ideal, it was necessary to protect the blood supply while they identified necessary areas for research. The FDA is the keeper of the deferral policy, but other health groups have also voted to keep it, or at least not change it for now. One issue involves when potential donors would get tested for HIV although testing has now become relatively simple (there are even at-home tests), HIV-positive people may still test negative if their blood is drawn in the first 11 days after infection.
“Although scientific evidence has not yet demonstrated that blood donated by MSM or a subgroup of these potential donors does not have a substantially increased rate of HIV infection compared to currently accepted blood donors, the FDA remains willing to consider new approaches to donor screening and testing,” the FDA responded in an email. When asked why the ban is still in place, and whether the FDA is in the process of considering a change, an FDA spokesperson told TIME that the agency is willing to consider changing its policy, but only if available data showed that lifting the ban provided no additional risk to people receiving donated blood. “This new policy urges a federal policy change to ensure blood donation bans or deferrals are applied to donors according to their individual level of risk and are not based on sexual orientation alone.” William Kobler, AMA board member in a statement. “The lifetime ban on blood donation for men who have sex with men is discriminatory and not based on sound science,” said Dr.
Last year, the American Medical Association (AMA) voted to end the ban, recognizing the new techniques available to detect HIV in donated blood. “We have enough to contribute to the offset of blood shortages.” “It completely alienated me from the rest of my coworkers, and I felt like a different species,” says Yeznak, who has created a documentary on the topic. The National Gay Blood Drive began when gay rights activist Ryan James Yezak felt humiliated at work when he was one of the only people who could not donate blood to tornado victims three years ago. If the petition gets 100,000 signatures by July 30, the Obama administration will issue a response. The group also launched a White House Petition on July 1 calling on the FDA to change its policy.