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“People should be screened for risky sexual behavior, such as not wearing condoms when having sex, as opposed to sexual orientation.” “It doesn’t make sense to have a blanket class of people who can’t donate blood,” she says. Now it’s clear that HIV transmission isn’t about whether you have sex with men it’s about whether you have safe sex, no matter who you are.įor years, LGBTQ activist groups have encouraged the FDA to remove its restriction, noting that the ban isn’t rooted in science and perpetuates stigma. “We were still trying to figure out the transmission of the virus, and all we knew was that this population was disproportionately impacted,” Lightfoot says. So far, the FDA has been reluctant to overhaul its policy, but as the need for fresh blood becomes ever more urgent, health and social-justice advocates are pumping new energy into the fight.Īt the time, doctors were only beginning to examine how exactly HIV was transmitted and whom it could affect. Halkitis, Ph.D., M.P.H., dean of the School of Public Health at Rutgers University. The continuation of a MSM-specific barrier to giving is not only limiting the blood supply, it’s unnecessary and “rooted in homophobia,” explains Perry N. “It is my opinion that we continue to have a real problem with laws and regulations based on fear rather than science,” she says. Ayako Miyashita Ochoa, lead author of the 2014 report, remains flummoxed as to why, seven years after pointing out the obvious benefit, the change hasn’t happened. Researchers estimated it would help save the lives of more than a million people, and experts agree this wouldn’t be putting anyone at additional risk of HIV-a fear that many scientists say needs to be put to rest. The same is true for women who’ve had sex with MSM.Īllowing MSM equal access to donate could increase the total annual blood supply by 2 to 4 percent, adding anywhere from 345,400 to 615,300 pints of blood each year, the Williams Institute at UCLA reported in 2014. Right now in the U.S., gay and bisexual men (often referred to as MSM, or “men who have sex with men”) are not allowed to give blood if they’ve had sex with another man in the past three months. If we don’t get more blood donors fast, we’re not going to be able to treat people with serious burns, those having heart surgeries and organ transplants, and those battling cancer.īut there is one easily implementable solution to the national blood-supply shortage that’s been available for years and could be a lifeline: allowing gay and bisexual men to donate freely. Collections at high schools and colleges dropped by 50 percent over that same period. That’s because the pandemic forced the cancellation of blood drives-three times as many were canceled in 2020 compared with the year before, according to the Red Cross.
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And more than half of all centers have less than a three-day stockpile for times of crisis. The country’s blood supply is also running dangerously low: About 30 percent of centers across the nation have a supply that could run out in one day or less and must be carefully managed. requires a blood donation every two seconds. Many people need blood transfusions-in fact, the American Red Cross estimates that someone in the U.S. AMERICAN HOSPITALS ARE flooded with sick patients, and not everyone there is battling Covid-19.