"We expect that the updated guidance and alternative procedures will help increase the number of donations moving forward, while helping to ensure adequate protections for donor health and maintaining a safe blood supply for patients," the agency said.
Deferral periods for those previously considered at risk of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease exposure have additionally been eliminated. Food and Drug Administration announced in December that it would soon reevaluate policies to allow more gay and bisexual men to donate blood, but health and civil rights advocates say the. Thursday's recommendations presented new criteria for people who have recently traveled to malaria-endemic regions (if they are residents of countries where the disease is non-endemic) as well. For both groups, the new deferral period is three months instead of 12 months.
The FDA's update also loosened blood donation restrictions applied to women who have had sex with gay or bisexual men as well as donors who have recently acquired tattoos or piercings. We'll keep pushing for the ban to be lifted entirely. This victory, however, remains imperfect. In February, the agency told WCNC it doesn’t have a specific timeline for the study’s completion.Victory! After weeks of pressure from GLAAD and others, is lowering the deferral period on men who have sex with men from 12 months to 3 months. The FDA is currently working on a study to determine if individual risk assessment could replace a time-based deferral policy as an effective way to protect the blood supply. Instead of blocking all sexually active gay and bisexual men from donating blood, the FDA should compliment nucleic acid testing “with an individual risk-based assessment based on our robust knowledge of how HIV is transmitted,” Kinsley wrote.Īssessing individual behavior means screening for “engagement in risky behavior, such as unprotected sex,” according to the Human Rights Campaign. American Red Cross Values Our top priority is the safety of our volunteer blood donors and the patients in need of lifesaving blood products. The Red Cross says it’s helping evaluate other criteria that could be used to identify eligible donors, but in the meantime, it can’t as a regulated organization “unilaterally enact changes concerning” the deferral policy for gay and bisexual men. Learn about federal regulations related to blood donation by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual and Gender non-conforming (LGBTQ+) individuals. The Red Cross says blood donation eligibility shouldn’t be determined by sexual orientation, and acknowledges “the hurt this policy has caused to many in the LGBTQ+ community.” Doing away with the deferral policy also has the support of the American Medical Association.
The deferral period was shortened to 90 days in April 2020, soon after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when there was a substantial drop in the nationwide blood supply. In December 2015, the FDA lifted the ban, replacing it with a policy allowing gay and bisexual men to donate blood, but only if they hadn’t been sexually active for 12 months. Up until a few years ago, gay and bisexual men were subject to a lifetime ban on blood donation that was put in place in 1983, at the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Elizabeth Tilson, the letter was signed by health officials from California, Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon and Washington, D.C.
On Thursday, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf asking the agency to remove a blood donor deferral policy that prevents men who have had sex with another man in the last 90 days from donating blood. North Carolina’s top health official, joined by public health leaders from eight other states and the District of Columbia, is asking the Food and Drug Administration to lift a three-month waiting period for gay men who are sexually active to donate blood.