FDA relaxes blood donation guidelines for gay and bisexual men: NPR

The Foods and Drug Control (FDA) mentioned Thursday it has officially lifted restrictions that previously barred many blood donations from gay and bisexual men — a longstanding protection that critics say is discriminatory.

IN knowledge, the federal corporate mentioned it’ll suggest a chain of “individualized risk-based questions” that will be the an identical for every blood donor, without reference to their sexual orientation, sex or gender. Those who have had anal sex with a brand spanking new sexual partner or with more than one sexual partner inside the ultimate 3 months will have to wait to donate blood.

“The implementation of the ones tips will represent a very important milestone for the corporate and the LGBTQI+ community,” mentioned Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Research and Research.

With the up-to-the-minute guidelines, most gay and bisexual men who are in a monogamous dating with an individual won’t will have to abstain from sex in an effort to donate blood.

Previously, the FDA’s blood donation guidelines — that have been ultimate up-to-the-minute in 2020 — discussed that men who have sex with men were allowed to donate blood after a three-month grace period in which they abstained from sex with any other man.

While the choice of other folks eligible to donate blood has larger, the corporate mentioned it’ll continue to look at the protection of blood supplies.

The 40-year-old restrictions were meant to offer protection to the blood supply from HIV

Blood donation restrictions date once more to the early days of the AIDS epidemic and were designed to offer protection to the blood supply from HIV.

First of all, homosexual and bisexual men were completely prohibited from donating blood. On the other hand through the years, the FDA after all relaxed the lifetime ban. However, the corporate however maintained some restrictions.

The in recent times up-to-the-minute guidelines are aimed at addressing years of criticism that the previous protection was once as soon as discriminatory and outdated, and that it represented any other barrier to boosting the country’s blood supply.

Blood banks already mechanically show donated blood for HIV.

For a few years, organizations along with the American Clinical Association, the American Red Transfer and a large number of LGBTQ+ advocacy groups have referred to as for a transformation inside the regulations.

The changes are a maximum recurrently a welcome business in a brand spanking new trail, advocates say

Reaction to the news was once as soon as largely certain from advocates, clinical groups and blood banks.

“This shift in opposition to individual donor exams prioritizes the protection of The united states’s blood supply while treating all donors with the fairness and acknowledge they deserve,” mentioned Kate Fry, govt director of The united states’s Blood Amenities, a nonprofit crew that brings together independent and community-based donors. blood amenities, inside the statement.

Fry mentioned the FDA’s final steering is in keeping with wisdom showing that the most efficient protection in opposition to illnesses, very similar to HIV, is through vigorous checking out of all blood donations — and a singular screening process for each donor.

GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis echoed that endorsement in statementsaying “The FDA’s resolution to apply the science and issue new tips for all Americans, without reference to sexual orientation, who selflessly donate blood to avoid wasting a lot of lives, signs the beginning of the top of a dark and discriminatory earlier rooted in fear and homophobia,”

However, Ellis mentioned, while the new guidelines are a step in the most efficient trail, there may be however a barrier for LGBTQ+ other folks on PrEP, an FDA-approved drug showed to prevent the transmission of HIV, who may wish to donate blood.

“GLAAD encourages the FDA to continue to prioritize science over stigma and take care of all donors and all blood in a similar way,” she added.

NPR’s Rob Stein and Will Stone contributed to this report.