The Food and Drug Administration announced on Thursday that it had formally ended the agency’s wide-ranging prohibition on blood donations from gay and bisexual men, a longstanding policy that had been denounced as discriminatory.
Instead, the F.D.A. is finalizing guidance that includes a questionnaire for all donors that is aimed at learning about their recent sexual activity. The more targeted questions will focus on whether someone has had new or multiple sex partners or anal sex in the last three months.
Potential donors who had recent sex under those screening criteria would be turned away.
The revised policy would also preclude blood donations from people taking oral PrEP to prevent H.I.V. infection, a restriction the agency said was designed to avoid false-negative results during blood screening.
In the revised policy the F.D.A. took its cues from Canada and the United Kingdom, which adopted similar approaches. The U.S. agency has been working on the change for months and said it also reviewed data from other nations and from a U.S. study examining this method.
Why It Matters: There is a blood shortage
Blood donations are sorely needed. They fell during and after the pandemic with the decrease in school- and office-based blood drives.
The old rules were far more restrictive in screening out gay or bisexual men. The update allows blood donation companies to use a more evidence-based way to reduce the risk of H.I.V. transmission while also maximizing donations.
“This shift toward individual donor assessments prioritizes the safety of America’s blood supply while treating all donors with the fairness and respect they deserve,” said Kate Fry, the chief executive of America’s Blood Centers, which represents independent blood centers that supply 60 percent of the nation’s donations.
by Christina Jewett, NYTimes.com
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Source: Time for Families
