Squid Ink: FDA doesn’t want your gay blood, but check back in June

Earlier this month, Senator John Kerry (D. Massachusetts) led an initiative demanding the FDA lift their ban on blood donations for men who have sex with men (MSM), calling it “outdated, medically and scientifically unsound” criteria for prospective blood donors.

Known as a ‘deferral,’ the current policy, established in 1983 by the Food and Drug Administration, bars men from donating blood if they have had sex with another man, even once since 1977. However, the letter sent by Kerry and 17 other senators argues that while heterosexual activity with a person known to have HIV is deferred for one year, any male donors who engage in homosexual activity, even with a committed monogamous partner of 26 years, is deferred for life, an obvious discriminatory and double-standard practice against the gay male population.

The Kerry-led initiative states: “The FDA-imposed lifetime ban for men who have sex with men does not fall in line with the one-year deferral required for high-risk heterosexual behavior, nor does it correspond in any way to the [three-week] window period [in which HIV antibodies can be detected]. The ban also does not distinguish between safe and unprotected sexual activity. As a result, healthy blood donors are turned away every day due to an antiquated policy and our blood supply is not necessarily any safer for it.”

This flies in the face of the FDA’s reasoning, especially when you look at the numbers. In 2005, only 49% of new HIV diagnoses were attributed to [men who have sex with men], while the rate of new HIV cases has been rapidly growing among heterosexuals. In fact, UNAIDS estimated that nearly 80% of all adult HIV infections worldwide have resulted from heterosexual intercourse, and while this percentage is lower in the United States, the rate of new HIV infections from heterosexual intercourse and intravenous drug use is steadily rising and attributed to about 45% of new diagnoses in 2005. Young African American women are at an unusually high risk of infection in the United States because of the lack of education and the perception that they are not vulnerable, limited access to health care and the higher likelihood of sexual contact with at-risk male partners.

“This [blood ban] policy misses the point that HIV gets spread by sexual behavior, not sexual orientation. Personally, I’d much rather receive blood from a healthy homosexual than a heterosexual who doesn’t practice safe sex,” says Alex Mandl (OF). “Recent statistics show that heterosexuals, specifically heterosexual women, are the fastest growing HIV-infected population in the U.S.”

So why does the FDA defer at-risk heterosexuals for only a year and outrightly ban homosexuals? The lack of education and fear still contribute to the connotation that HIV and AIDS is a ‘gay disease’ as well assumptions of promiscuity among the gay male population. In 1982, AIDS was referred to medically as GRID, or Gay-Related Immune Deficiency and often called the ‘gay plague.’

To date, there are only a handful of countries that do not have an indefinite ban on donation of blood from the MSM population. Israel defers 30 years since last exposure. New Zealand and South Africa defer five years. Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Hungary, Japan and Sweden defer one year since last exposure, the same timeframe required for most high-risk behavior in the US like tattooing, heart surgery, sexually transmitted diseases or [have been] in a correctional facility.

Dr. Ronald Bayer, Columbia University explained at an FDA workshop in 2006: ”Banning men who have sex with men from the donor pool would exclude them from one of the great acts of altruism in contemporary society so carefully mapped by Richard Titmus. Recall also that discussion of such restrictions and bans occurred at a time when half the states in the United States still criminalized sex between men, consenting adults, and that in 1985 the Supreme Court of the United States in Bowers versus Hardwick would uphold Georgia’s sodomy statute, dismissing claims that gay adult men had a right to have sex as vacuous. Then, men who have had sex with men since 1977, no matter how monogamous their relationship is classed, are linked with prostitutes, sex workers and drug users. Given the current testing technology, there is clearly a public health rationale for jettisoning the 29-year exclusion for men who have had sex with men.”

In response to Kerry’s letter, the Department of Health and Human Services’ blood safety committee will reexamine the issue in June. But there is so much more we can do to help. The concept of donating on behalf of someone who cannot may be new to most, but partnering with the San Diego Blood Bank, we believe that we can still make a difference, raise awareness, and create change.

Join “Donate For Me” on June 11th in Balboa Park and help save lives.

The San Diego Blood Bank is a member of America’s Blood Centers (ABC). They support the joint statement released by ABC, AABB and ARC concerning the MSM deferral policy that was cited in the recent letter sent to FDA. They support reducing the deferral period from a lifetime ban to that consistent with most other risk deferrals such as a recent tattoo (12 months from last tattoo).

I’ll be there…I hope you will too!

Tags: at-risk, Blood, donor, FDA, gay, heterosexual, HIV, HIV/AIDS, homosexual, John Kerry, LGBT, San Diego Blood Bank

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 9:49 AM and is filed under Lifestyle, Squid Ink. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.