FDA Lifts Ban on Blood Donations From Gay Men

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Federal health officials are lifting the nation’s 32-year-old lifetime ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men, but major restrictions will remain on who can donate.

The Food and Drug Administration said Monday that the change is “backed by sound science and continues to protect our blood supply.”

Arthur L. Caplan, the director of Division of Medical Ethics at NYC Langone, agrees, telling Yahoo Health, “It’s a really important decision. I’ve been pressing the FDA to do this since I was the chair of the Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability, in 2000.”

“We need more blood donors — blood is getting harder and harder to obtain, Caplan explains. “Americans aren’t donating at the rate their parents and grandparents were.”

Officials are replacing the blanket ban with a policy barring donations from men who have had sex with another man in the previous year. While the policy has been criticized by activists, the FDA stance is in line with that of other countries, including Australia and the U.K.

“Secondly, this decision is consistent with science, not bigotry. A one-year abstinence period will safely protect those who use blood and rely on blood,” Caplan told Yahoo Health. “Thirdly, this brings us in alignment with the rest of the world, where gay men have been permitted to donate.”

Gay activists and some medical groups have long said the ban could no longer be justified, based on modern testing methods, but the FDA has proceeded with caution.

Caplan says, “We were an outlier, in my opinion, for no other reason than fear — or just lethargy — when it comes to changing the policy, but I think it’s a sound decision that will help all Americans.”

The lifetime ban was put in place during the early AIDS crisis, a time of great fear of the HIV infection spreading in the U.S. According to the CDC, direct blood transfusion from an infected blood donor is the route of exposure carrying the highest probability for becoming infected; however, this is extremely rare.

With reporting from the Associated Press.

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