FDA once again relaxes rules for gay and bisexual people who want to donate blood

WASHINGTON — The US is seeking to ease restrictions on blood donation from gay and bisexual men, as well as other groups that traditionally face an increased risk of HIV infection.

On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration announced draft guidelines that would remove the current three-month requirement for donations from men who have sex with men. Instead, potential donors will be screened with a questionnaire that assesses their individual risk of contracting HIV based on sexual behavior, recent partners and other factors.

If completed, this shift will be the FDA’s latest move to expand donor eligibility, with the potential to increase US blood supplies.

Gay rights groups have long opposed general restrictions on who can donate blood, saying they discriminate against the LGBT community. Medical societies, including the American Medical Association, have also said such exceptions are unnecessary given advances in blood testing technology for infectious diseases.

“Current and past blood donation policies have been based on unfounded assumptions about gay and bisexual men and have indeed linked people’s identity to their likelihood of contracting HIV,” said Sarah Warbelow of the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ rights advocacy group.

The US and many other countries began blocking gay and bisexual blood donations during the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s in an effort to prevent the spread of HIV through blood.

In 2015, the FDA lifted the lifetime ban and replaced it with a one-year abstinence requirement. The agency then reduced the abstinence period to three months in 2020 after donations plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regulators said these changes did not adversely affect the blood supply.

The FDA sets requirements and procedures for blood banks throughout the United States. All potential donors answer questions about their sex life, drug use and any recent tattoos or piercings, as well as other factors that may contribute to the spread of blood-borne infections. The donated blood is then tested for HIV, hepatitis C, syphilis and other infectious diseases.

Under the new questionnaire, men who have sex with men will be asked about new or multiple partners in the past three months. Those who answer yes to any question and also report anal sex will be prohibited from making donations until a later date. The policy will also apply to women who have sex with gay or bisexual men.

The policy reflects those used in Canada and the UK.

The FDA based its latest proposal on a recent study of 1,600 gay and bisexual men. An FDA-funded study compared the effectiveness of a detailed personalized sexual behavior questionnaire with current time-based abstinence guidelines.

According to Cliff Numark, head of Vitalant, a blood center that participated in the study, it will take several months for blood banks to make the changes. The changes will require new questionnaires, staff training and computer software upgrades.

The Red Cross said it supported the FDA changes, but added that it was too early to tell if they would lead to more blood donors.

Lucas Pietschak of Washington, DC, said he volunteered to participate in the FDA study. He credits an emergency blood transfusion with saving his father’s life after a bicycle accident in 1991.

Pietschak donated blood in high school, but became ineligible for the program after becoming sexually active as a gay man.

“Until I fully opened up to my friends, I had to sidestep why I never went to blood draws with them,” says Petshak, 26, who now works for the federal government.

When calls for blood donation are made, “now we can get involved,” Petshak said.

© 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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