The federal government soon will likely lift a 31-year ban on gay men donating blood.
The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will hold a two-day hearing starting Tuesday on whether to drop an official 1983 policy which blocks gay men from donating blood if they have had sex with another man since 1977.
The policy would probably be replaced with another one that calls for a one-year time deferral on blood donations if men report having had sex with another man within the last year,
The Washington Post reports.
The potential policy switch is coming in response to years of pressure from gay rights groups, congressional leaders, and medical groups over a policy they consider to be outdated, scientifically unnecessary to protect the blood supply, and discriminatory.
Dr. William Kobler, board member of the American Medical Association (AMA), said "the lifetime ban on blood donation for men who have sex with men is discriminatory and not based on sound science. This
new policy urges a federal policy change to ensure blood donation bans or deferrals are applied to donors according to their individual level of risk and are not based on sexual orientation alone."
In 2010, Secretary of State John Kerry, then a senator, joined a group of 17 other senators — 16 Democrats and one independent — in a letter to the FDA which stated: "Not a single piece of scientific evidence supports the ban," and called for its lifting,
CBS News reported.
The senators noted that the American Red Cross, America's Blood Centers, and the American Association of Blood Banks all support lifting the ban.
At the time of the ban's institution, tests for HIV in blood donations were not as well-developed as they are today.
Dr. Christopher Stowell of Massachusetts General Hospital, a specialist in blood transfusion,
explained to Boston.com that current tests used on blood donations will spot HIV within a few days to two weeks after infection. The likelihood of an infection not being detected, he said is at "such a low rate that it can't be measured. It must be one in several million."
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UCLA study last year found that dropping the ban on blood donation from gay men could increase the amount of blood donated from 2 to 4 percent, or between 345,400 and 615,300 pints of blood per year, and "help save the lives of more than 1.8 million people."
The Washington Post reports that an advisory panel of the Department of Health and Human Services has recommended replacing the current ban with one which forbids blood donation by gays who have had sex within the last year.
The Post says this would be similar to bans in Australia, Japan, and Great Britain, while Canada has a five-year ban and South Africa defers anyone who has had sex in the last six months, regardless of the sex of the partner. Italy, Spain, Russia, and Mexico have no deferral requirement, Boston.com notes.
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