The new approach removes rules that cover men who have sex with men, and instead focuses on sexual behavior among those at high risk of contracting and transmitting HIV, regardless of gender, according to Plans. said an official with direct knowledge of the Anonymous terms as I do not have permission to comment. FDA plans to adopt this proposal after a period of public comment.
Other countries, including Canada and the UK, have made similar changes in recent years.
For decades, gay men were barred from performing widely-admired community service efforts and avoided donating blood with friends and family after national disasters, making them marginalized. The strictness of the FDA rule, which makes no exceptions for people in monogamous relationships, means that no matter what steps you take to protect your health, you’ll be treated as an untrustworthy or disease vector. Some felt like they were being overlooked.
“Keeping the blood supply safe is a top priority, but it is also important to move forward not to exclude groups of donors who may be perfectly safe. Biotherapies will oversee the development of the donor screening questionnaire. We are a non-profit organization.
Cole Williams faced an awkward situation when the country faced a severe blood shortage early in the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. The television was constantly running commercials asking for blood donors. His family wanted to donate blood together. But Williams, who is bisexual and now 22, had to explain that he was ineligible. had sex with a man
“You don’t have to fight so hard to do something as selfless as donating blood,” said Williams, a nursing student who founded Pride and Plasma, an advocacy group advocating for a change in FDA policy. “I could have unprotected sex with as many women as I wanted and the FDA wouldn’t mind it.”
Technological advances in blood screening and new FDA-funded Studies Supporting Proposed Approach Banned Sexually Active Homosexuals Outright Bisexual men are incontrovertible, some experts said.Newly eligible donors probably won’t be able to donate blood By the end of the year or early next year, when the FDA finalizes the changes and the blood banks implement the changes.
Some activists say homosexuals will still be treated unfairly under the proposed guidelines.
This includes people who take the pill every day, which greatly reduces their risk of contracting HIV. This is a breakthrough that has revolutionized prevention without relying solely on condoms or abstinence. People who use condoms regularly are no exception. And there are no exceptions for those who can present a negative HIV test.
“Being HIV-free and monogamous is not the only way to prevent transmission,” said a communication from Gay Men’s Health Crisis, a group advocating for an end to blood donation bans, and said Jason Cianciotto, vice president of public policy.
During the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, thousands Eight people who received blood transfusions became infected before scientists realized that the HIV virus that caused the disease could be transmitted through blood.
The FDA has placed restrictions on blood donations by gay men. Homosexual men have higher rates of HIV infection, are more likely to spread the virus in smaller sexual networks, and spread more efficiently through anal sex than through vaginal sex. In 1985, the agency imposed an “indefinite deferral,” or lifelong ban, on donating blood from men who had had sex with another man since 1977. Banned in 2015, instead, the man who donated blood had to abstain from having sex with other men for 12 months of her.
That postponement was shortened to three months in April 2020, as blood shortages became more acute due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The new risk assessment is expected to ask potential donors whether they have had a new sexual partner in the past three months, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, according to a person familiar with the FDA’s proposal. If they say no, they can donate blood.Man If you had new sexual partners, you will be asked if they engaged anal sex in the last 3 months; anyone who has You will be asked to wait 3 months before donating.
The FDA declined to comment on the content of the new guidelines, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, but said they would be “gender-neutral and science-based.”
This will allow sexually active men in monogamous relationships with other men to donate blood for the first time since 1985. In some cases, if a woman has anal sex with a new partner, it can mean that she is banned from donating blood for the first time. Heterosexual anal sex has not been a major focus in public health efforts to contain HIV, but for the final details of the questionnaire.
“Reducing the stigma around queer identities is worth it,” says Benjamin Brooks, associate director of policy and education at Whitman Walker, a Washington, DC-based LGBT health care organization.
Bruce Walker, director of the Lagone Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, said the new policy should make the blood supply safer. 3 months before donating.
“We need to identify at-risk people who are in that window period and prevent them from donating,” Walker said. It has been very stigmatized in that it was
Canada’s federal health agency approved a similar change last April.
Aditi Kandelwal, a hematologist and medical director of the Canadian Blood Service, an Ottawa-based nonprofit that provides blood products, said gender identity-based restrictions were “not ideal, and how HIV It doesn’t reach the risk factors of being contagious,” he said.
When 57-year-old Yale University School of Medicine professor Howard Forman turned 18 in 1983, he proudly carried a blood donation card and began donating blood. But years after the FDA banned donations by men who have sex with men, Forman felt disqualified and lost.
“They picked up what a lot of people meant,” Forman said.
Similar stories of disappointment and rejection play out over the decades that follow.
Eric Kutcher, 32, wasn’t out to see his classmates at Columbia University in 2011 when he attended a blood donation at the campus gym.
“Have you had sexual contact with another man since 1977?” Kutcher replied, “Yes.” And I was told he doesn’t allow donations.
Kutscher left the gym feeling embarrassed and embarrassed. That led to volunteer work as an HIV testing counselor, and then to a career in medical school and public health.Mr. Kutscher, a fellow in addiction medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said he is the most common blood type. One said he was looking forward to donating his O-positive.
“I understand how this can save lives, and I’m thrilled to be a young, healthy adult man who can donate blood to patients in need,” he said. As soon as I get it, I’ll be the first in line.”
FDA funded research Conducted from December 2020 to September 2022 by Vitalant, OneBlood, and the American Red Cross, three of the nation’s largest non-profit blood centers, to judge gay and bisexual men whose donors are sexually active I checked to see if there were any questions I could ask. Individual risks in donating blood.
Brian Custer, director of the Vitalant Research Institute and principal investigator of the study, declined to share the results without FDA approval. But characterized them as promising.
“Obviously, if the FDA is considering moving to an individual risk-based approach, it has to trust that it has enough data,” Custer said.
Some of the strongest supporters for easing restrictions have come from the blood banks themselves.
Kate Frye, chief executive of American Blood Center, an independent blood bank organization that provides 60% of the U.S. blood supply, says the lingering impact of the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt supplies. said. At least half of the blood centers are 3-5 days recommended.
“We are going through a very difficult time for our blood supply,” Frye said.
It’s unclear how much the new rule will expand the blood supply, which includes giving gay and bisexual men accustomed to being banned to let them know they might be eligible to donate. A coordinated outreach campaign will be required.
Some critics say the three-month waiting period mirrored in other Western countries remains too stringent, with advances in testing allowing HIV to be detected sooner.
Democratic Senator Brad Hoylman Segal, an outspoken gay man in the New York legislature, said any delay “will continue to fuel the stigma of men who have sex with men.”
“They need to completely remove such restrictions on gay men donating blood.” Hoylman-Sigal said:
According to Canada’s Khandelwal, the reason for the three-month delay is that testing for blood-borne viruses, including not only HIV but also hepatitis B and C, is “not perfect.” A virus can be detected in a matter of weeks, but a three-month period provides ample “buffer” for detecting harmful viruses, she said.
All blood donated to U.S. blood banks is tested for HIV using something called a nucleic acid test, which can detect the virus in blood samples “within 10 to 33 days of infection,” the director said. Sean Cahill said. Health policy research at the Fenway Institute, a Boston-based group serving the LGBT community. “The three-month postponement has tripled his 33 days, further ensuring that particular attention is paid to this period of nucleic acid testing.”
Stephen Barral, a professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, said the problem with the US blood supply was not HIV-contaminated blood, but a shortage of donors.
“For more than 20 years, no one has been infected by a blood transfusion,” Barral said. “The United States has a safe blood supply, but the major problem with all of it is that we don’t have enough of it.”
