US eases limits on gay blood donors

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

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 give blood.

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. Though the one-year ban has been criticized by activists, it matches policies in other countries, including Australia, Japan and the U.K.

Gay-rights activists said the new policy is a “step in the right direction” but falls short.

“It continues to stigmatize gay and bisexual men,” said David Stacy, of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest U.S. gay-rights group. “It simply cannot be justified in light of current scientific research and updated blood- screening technology.”

Monday’s policy shift first was 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in late 2014 and follows years of lobbying by medical groups and gay-rights groups, who said the previous ban was outdated and perpetuated negative stereotypes.

Dr. Peter Marks of the FDA said the change is “backed by sound scientific evidence” and will “continue to protect our blood supply.”

The FDA considered eliminating all restrictions on blood donations from gay and bisexual men, but concluded that would increase the transmission of HIV through the blood supply by 400 percent.

“An increase of that magnitude is not acceptable,” Marks told reporters.

All U.S. blood donations are screened for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. But there is a roughly 10-day window between initial infection and when the virus can be detected by current testing techniques. The American Red Cross estimates the risk of getting an HIV-positive blood donation is 1 in 1.5 million for all U.S. patients. About 15.7 million blood donations are collected in the U.S. each year.

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 then a little-understood disease.

The FDA concluded that moving to a one-year abstinence requirement would not change the safety of U.S. blood donations, based primarily on data from Australia. That country has had a one-year rule for active gay and bisexual men for more than 10 years.