“So that's really what can drive this change.” I mean, right now, the testing that we do, you could be exposed to HIV and test positive within days after that exposure,” Lux said. “Testing has improved so much since 1983. The HIV virus is better understood now, and blood can be tested quickly. Louis on the Air that while the regulations around blood donations made sense in the early ‘80s, there’s not much reason for them anymore. Pete Lux, vice president of donor and patient services at ImpactLife, said on Thursday’s St. Louis hospitals, is advocating for new guidelines around sexual activity and blood donation. ImpactLife, a blood donation organization based in Iowa that provides 40% of all blood transfused in St. Now, a Midwestern organization hopes to change the FDA’s rules to better reflect modern realities.
Then, in 2015, it was changed to a yearlong celibacy period, and in 2020 that was shortened to three months. Fueled by fear of the AIDS crisis, the ban was in effect for more than three decades. Three tested positive for AIDS.ĪBC affiliate KGO in San Francisco contributed to this story.In 1983, the FDA put a lifetime ban on blood donations from men who have sex with men. Last year, the Blood Centers of the Pacific in San Francisco collected 100,000 units of blood. “Most gay men want to do their duty and be able to give blood,” says Duane. Less than one unit of HIV-positive blood per year would escape into the blood supply.Ī one-year celibacy policy would generate 112,000 new donors and up to three units of HIV-infected blood, Dayton says. Andrew Dayton says in a presentation prepared for the FDA meeting.ĭayton says changing to a five-year celibacy policy will result in more than 62,000 new men donating blood. Banking errors were considered the “most significant risk” of changing the policy in 1997, Dr. The agency is being conservative because it’s worried about blood banking errors - units of infected blood that slip through the cracks because of human error at blood banks. The FDA is most likely to shift to a policy under which a gay man must have abstained from homosexual sex for five years before donating blood, Kessler says.
It’s about specific sexual behavior, not about sexual orientation,” says Tom Duane, a Democratic New York state senator who is both openly gay and HIV-positive. “Everyone is equally at risk for HIV infection. He suggests the current restrictions may be too tight on gays and too loose on promiscuous heterosexuals. Safety of the blood supply is the first priority, agrees Doni Gewirtzman of the Lambda Legal Defense Fund, a legal-aid organization for gay people and people with AIDS. At the same time, it allows heterosexuals to donate blood even if they have participated in risky sexual or drug-use behavior,” says Martin Algaze, spokesman for Gay Men’s Health Crisis. “The existing policy is archaic and discriminatory because it falsely assumes that all gay men are HIV-positive regardless of their sexual behavior. Under the current rule, a heterosexual woman who has had sex with numerous AIDS-infected partners can give blood after waiting a year, but a gay man who’s been celibate since 1978 is banned.