The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reiterated its 24 year-old policy imposing a blanket ban on gay men giving blood.
Organisations, including the Red Cross and America’s Blood Bank Centres, have expressed disappointment with the decision, arguing that improvements in HIV diagnostics mean that the current ban is “medically and scientifically unwarranted.”
Before giving blood in the US, all men are asked if they have had sex with a man at any time since 1977. Those answering yes are permanently banned from donating blood. Other groups with a high HIV prevalence, and individuals whose behaviour had put them in risk of acquiring a blood-borne infection, are also subject to either permanent or temporary blood donation bans.
Recent improvements in HIV testing mean that infection with HIV can now be detected within a matter of days by testing pooled samples using nucleic acid testing. This prompted the Red Cross, the American Association of Blood Banks and America’s Blood Centres to propose in early 2006 that the blanket ban on donations from gay men should be repealed. They suggested that it should be replaced with a one-year ban to cover the one-year period after a man last had sex with another man. This, they argued, but allow more than enough time for the blood to show signs of HIV infection.
However, on May 23rd the FDA reiterated its existing policy. Although it acknowledged the accuracy of new diagnostic techniques, it said that even these improved testing methods are unable detect HIV all the time.
Studies from the UK show that blood infected with HIV or other blood-borne viruses has, very occasionally entered the blood supply despite stringent screening of donor and testing of the blood supply. The FDA estimates that there is a one in two million risk of an HIV-infected blood donation entering the US blood supply.
A blanket ban on blood donations from gay men also exists in the UK. The ban is supported by the UK’s largest HIV charity, the Terrence Higgins Trust, although some other organisations have said that it is homophobic as it does not consider individual HIV risk behaviour. The overwhelming majority of HIV infections contracted within the UK still occur within gay men. Individuals with a history of injecting drug use as well as those who have lived in areas with a high HIV prevalence are also banned from giving blood in the UK. There are also temporary restrictions placed on blood donations from individuals who recently have had tattoos or body piercing, and those who have had surgery, or major dental work.