FDA to make easier for gay and bisexual men to donate blood : Shots - Health News : NPR

Contents:

• MORE GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN WILL NOW BE ABLE TO DONATE BLOOD UNR FALIZED FDA L
• GAY MEN STILL FACE HURDL TO DONATE BLOOD AMID NATNAL SHORTAGE
• LETTG GAY MEN DONATE BLOOD COULD HELP SOLVE A MAJOR HEALTH CRISIS
• DPE BLOOD SUPPLI CRILLY LOW, SOME GAY MEN STILL CANNOT DONATE PLASMA
• FDA 'MENCG A STUDY' THAT ULD LEAD TO THE REMOVAL OF A ONCE-LIFETIME BAN ON GAY MEN DONATG BLOOD AS COVID-19 SURVIVOR SAYS HE WAS TURNED AWAY OM BLOOD CENTER FOR BEG GAY
• I'M A GAY MAN AND HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO DONATE BLOOD DUE TO THE FDA BAN. I WAS PART OF THE RED CROSS STUDY THAT WILL HELP OVERTURN THAT.
• F.D.A. CONSIRG NEW APPROACH TO BLOOD DONATN BY GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• BLOOD DONOR L TO BE RELAXED FOR GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN ENGLAND
• GAY MEN CAN NOW DONATE LIFE-SAVG BONE MARROW. WILL BLOOD FOLLOW?
• WHAT ARE THE BLOOD DONATN L GLOBALLY FOR GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN?
• DOCTORS SAY 'S TIME TO END BAN ON BLOOD DONATNS OM GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN
• GIVG BLOOD HAS BEEN OFF LIMS FOR MANY GAY MEN. A NEW STUDY ULD HELP CHANGE THAT
• GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN ARE NOW ALLOWED TO DONATE BLOOD IN ENGLAND, STLAND AND WAL
• OUR SON WAS FIGHTG FOR HIS LIFE. A GAY BLOOD DONOR BAN BLOCKED OM GIVG HELP HE NEED.
• FDA'S REVISED BLOOD DONATN GUIDANCE FOR GAY MEN STILL COURTS CONTROVERSY
• OPN: WILL NEW BLOOD DONATN L FALLY STOP STIGMATIZG GAY MEN?

MORE GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN WILL NOW BE ABLE TO DONATE BLOOD UNR FALIZED FDA L

The Food and Dg Admistratn (FDA) said Thursday had officially elimated rtrictns that had prevly prohibed many blood donatns by gay and bisexual men — a longstandg policy that crics say is discrimatory.

GAY MEN STILL FACE HURDL TO DONATE BLOOD AMID NATNAL SHORTAGE

Wh the updated guil, most gay and bisexual men who are a monogamo relatnship wh a man will no longer have to rea om sex orr to donate blood. Print and CEO of GLAAD Sarah Kate Ellis echoed that approval a statement, sayg "The FDA's cisn to follow science and issue new remendatns for all Amerins, regardls of sexual orientatn, who selflsly donate blood to help save liv, signals the begng of the end of a dark and discrimatory past rooted fear and homophobia, " However, Ellis said while the new guidance is a step the right directn, there is still a barrier for LGBTQ+ people who are on PrEP, an FDA-approved dg proven to prevent the transmissn of HIV, who may want to donate blood. Dpe this urgent need for donatns, people who have sex wh gay or bisexual men are still facg rtrictns on their abily to give Food and Dg Admistratn bars people who have had sex wh gay or bisexual men om donatg blood for three months followg the most recent sexual ntact bee of fears of HIV the blood agency changed the ferral perd om 12 months to three months November 2020 as blood donatns fell and hospals faced cril shortag durg the first year of the COVID-19 advot, cludg the Human Rights Campaign, say the FDA is movg too slowly on removg the rtrictn, sayg that 's an outright ban on the abily of people, particularly gay and bisexual men, to donate blood.

Rtrictns on blood donatns om gay and bisexual men, who are nsired to be at high risk for HIV or AIDS transmissn, date back to the and bisexual men unrgo dividual risk asssments stead of time-based bans untri around the world, recently cludg Greece and France, acrdg to ternatnal reports.

LETTG GAY MEN DONATE BLOOD COULD HELP SOLVE A MAJOR HEALTH CRISIS

The event was held to prott feral l that effectively ban gay men om donatg Bispg/Star Tribune via Getty Imag, FILEValant told ABC News a new statement that rearchers are halfway toward s goal of enrollg 2, 000 participants across eight ci: Washgton D. They enurage gay and bisexual men who are 18 to 39 years old to participate the FDA, a statement to ABC News, said that this study uld generate data that will help the agency terme if a donor's dividual risk asssment and qutnnaire would be jt as effective rcg the risk of HIV the blood supply as the time-based ferrals the FDA already has FDA also said do not have a specific timele for when the studi will be pleted but that is "mted to gatherg the scientific data that n support alternative donor ferral polici that mata a high level of blood safety.

But there is one easily implementable solutn to the natnal blood-supply shortage that’s been available for years and uld be a lifele: allowg gay and bisexual men to donate eely. S., gay and bisexual men (often referred to as MSM, or “men who have sex wh men”) are not allowed to give blood if they’ve had sex wh another man the past three months. “It is my opn that we ntue to have a real problem wh laws and regulatns based on fear rather than science, ” she ntuatn of a MSM-specific barrier to givg is not only limg the blood supply, ’s unnecsary and “rooted homophobia, ” explas Perry N.

”In 2015, theFDA loosened s rtrictn, permtg gay and bisexual men to donate blood as long as they hadn’t had sex wh another man the past year.

DPE BLOOD SUPPLI CRILLY LOW, SOME GAY MEN STILL CANNOT DONATE PLASMA

Conducted tanm wh the natn’s largt blood centers—the Amerin Red Cross, Valant, and OneBlood—the rearch effort will survey 2, 000 gay and bisexual men across the untry between the ag of 18 and 30 who have had sex wh at least one man the past three months.

FDA 'MENCG A STUDY' THAT ULD LEAD TO THE REMOVAL OF A ONCE-LIFETIME BAN ON GAY MEN DONATG BLOOD AS COVID-19 SURVIVOR SAYS HE WAS TURNED AWAY OM BLOOD CENTER FOR BEG GAY

The first step is to sign GLAAD’s petn at You then n—and should—te those around you, “sce many people, cludg gay and bi men, don’t know that this ban exists, ” adds Lasky. Dpe Blood Suppli Crilly Low, Some Gay Men Still Cannot Donate Plasma Men who've had COVID-19 and have sex wh other men mt wa three months before donatg potentially life-savg plasma.

The lifetime ban was shortened to a year of celibacy 2015 and then rced to three months last April, which is still a problem acrdg to California State Senator Stt WIENER: The FDA's blood donatn ban is 100% driven by fear, ignorance and outdated stereotyp about gay and bisexual men. ”GLAAD print and CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis, says revised FDA blood donatn ferral policy is still steeped stigma for gay and bi-sexual, who liv New York Cy, told “GMA” an terview, “I was exced, nervo, very nervo, bee I haven't really had any experience donatg blood sce I was 18. ”A ban on gay bloodFacts show that Estok’s experience, spe beg surfaced as a prime ndidate for antibody rearch and plasma revery after beg fected wh COVID-19, is nsistent wh feral guil set by the Food and Dg Admistratn (FDA), “to rce the transmissn of HIV by blood and blood products.

A group advotg AIDS rearch march down Fifth Avenue durg the 14th annual Lbian and Gay Pri para New York, June 27, Suriani/AP, FILEThat policy was upheld until 2015, when the FDA revised the guil om a lifetime ban to a 12-month ferral perd. Meang, gay and bisexual men had to absta om havg sex wh another man for at least 12-months before beg allowed to give April 2, amid the COVID-19 crisis and lls om the Surgeon General for healthy Amerins to give blood and avert a natnal shortage, the FDA revised the 12-month ferral perd down to most-recently revised guil for gay and bisexual men also extend to women who have had sex wh men who have sex wh other men, as well as anyone who has had recent tattoos and piercgs.

I'M A GAY MAN AND HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO DONATE BLOOD DUE TO THE FDA BAN. I WAS PART OF THE RED CROSS STUDY THAT WILL HELP OVERTURN THAT.

Effectively, the revised FDA 3-month ferral perd guil clu gay and bisexual men who are a monogamo relatnship, gay and bisexual men who are practicg safe sex as well as gay and bisexual men who are parison, a straight man who is a polygamo relatnship or engag wh multiple female sex partners has no outright rtrictns on givg blood based on his sexual the FDA statement says the data by which the cisn was ma to revise the ferral perd brought on by a global panmic was, “based on recently pleted studi and epimlogic data, ” many doctors across the U.

Jacquelyn Mart/AP, FILEThis is the first time the FDA has ma public mentn of a study to work toward movg to an dividual risk-based asssment for blood donors and the would evably remove the once-lifetime ban on gay and bisexual men om givg blood or blood products and any ferral perd that time , the FDA blood ferral policy for gay and bisexual men stands on s current 3-month ferral perd. But the study I signed up for required only six Red Cross-sponsored Advance study llected blood om 1, 600 gay and bisexual men across the US. I was first barred om donatg blood high schoolGrowg up a Los Angel school, I was fortably, proudly, and illtrly gay — my teenage md, at least.

I wasn't angry that I was beg discrimated agast; I was angry bee I had blood to give — blood that I wanted to give — and wasn't able to bee of an illegimate policy rooted Reagan-era homophobia. Fally, I got to give blood as a proud gay manAt the Pasana Red Cross Blood, Platelet and Plasma Donatn Center, I was led to a private room the back.

F.D.A. CONSIRG NEW APPROACH TO BLOOD DONATN BY GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

2, 2022The Food and Dg Admistratn is nsirg a more dividualized strategy for screeng gay and bisexual men for blood donatn amid an ongog natnal blood shortage, acrdg to an agency official briefed on the F. In 2015, the agency allowed gay and bisexual men to donate if they had not had sexual ntact wh other men for the prev perd was rced to three months after severe blood shortag durg the Covid-19 new plan would require potential donors to fill out a qutnnaire about recent sexual activy, among other risk factors.

”The new approach is meant to strike a balance between activists who want no rtrictns that sgle out gay and bisexual men and blood banks that want to elimate the risk of a recipient acquirg H. -fund study signed to asss the safety of replacg the current three-month wag perd wh a more dividualized rearchers, who enrolled about 1, 600 gay and bisexual men eight metropolan areas, are hopg to intify a set of screeng qutns that n differentiate men who are more likely to have recently acquired H.

BLOOD DONOR L TO BE RELAXED FOR GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN ENGLAND

Gay and bisexual men will be able to donate blood more easily om next summer followg a landmark policy change, the NHS blood service has announced.

GAY MEN CAN NOW DONATE LIFE-SAVG BONE MARROW. WILL BLOOD FOLLOW?

He said “The UK is leadg the way ensurg that blood donatn is more clive and now will allow many more gay, bisexual and other men who have sex wh men to donate blood. 5 ln people currently enrolled the Natnal Bone Marrow Registry, there’s only a 1 430 chance volunteers will ever be lled upon to donate for Pagels, the challenge is also of her iends are gay or bisexual and historilly unable to donate to blood centers unr Feral Dg Admistratn policy.

Acctomed to beg turned away om blood centers due to the fear they might transm HIV, Pagels’ gay and bisexual male iends were worried they wouldn’t be able to help her l of people wa at the OneBlood Donatn Center to donate blood for the jured victims of the Pulse nightclub shootg on June 12, 2016 Orlando, Florida.

WHAT ARE THE BLOOD DONATN L GLOBALLY FOR GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN?

Gay and bisexual men ntued to be turned away for bone marrow donatn until last year, as Medium wrer John Colucci found out when he attempted to sign up for the registry Febary 2015. ”RELATED: FDA Rensirs Gay Blood BanJason Cianctto, the Vice Print of Policy, Advocy and Communitns at Harlem Uned, believ if allowg MSMs to donate tissue has had no negative impact on the bone marrow registry, the FDA should do the same for blood donatn.

DOCTORS SAY 'S TIME TO END BAN ON BLOOD DONATNS OM GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN

“[The 12-month ferral perd] is a scientifilly unsound policy that particularly stigmatiz gay and bisexual male muni, as well as transgenr women, ” he told NBC Out. Gay and bisexual men who are HIV-negative and who practice safe sex, are married and monogamo relatnships, or on PrEP—and if they’re takg regularly, have ltle to no risk of ntractg HIV—are effectively banned for life. (This May 11 story rrects date and time reference for France fal par)LONDON (Thomson Rters Foundatn) - Countri around the world are reviewg rtrictns on blood donatns by gay and bisexual men imposed durg the 1980s HIV/AIDS crisis, wh some removg blanket bans and others rcg wag perds after gay ’s Supreme Court led on Friday that a 12-month ferral perd for gay and bi men to give blood was unnstutnal, a policy LGBT+ mpaigners had long argued was discrimatory given morn blood-screeng now, Brazil’s ernment will have to treat gay and bisexual men the same as heterosexual men when donatg blood.

GIVG BLOOD HAS BEEN OFF LIMS FOR MANY GAY MEN. A NEW STUDY ULD HELP CHANGE THAT

It uld wre a new law that restat the ban, but s posn is not yet blood suppli have e unr prsure due to the ronavis panmic, lls have grown for ernments to replace abstence perds for men who have sex wh men to donate blood wh dividual risk-based month, the Uned Stat and Northern Ireland cut their abstence perds, while Atralia said plans to do are the l erng blood donatn by gay and bi men around the world:- Countri that impose lifelong bans on gay and bisexual men donatg blood clu Croatia, Iceland, Malaysia, Slovenia, Sgapore, Tridad and Tobago and Ukrae- At least 17 untri now have no rtrictns, cludg Argenta, Italy, Rsia, South Ai, Spa and, as of January this year, Hungary- In April 2020, the Uned Stat cut s celibacy perd om 12 months to three months amid a blood shortage- Last month, Northern Ireland also rced s ferral perd om one year to three months, brgg to le wh regulatns the rt of the Uned Kgdom- Some untri differentiate between blood products and blood general, but Bra men who have had sex wh another man the last three months and revered om Covid-19 nnot donate their plasma to a ronavis treatment trial- Most untri do not mentn whether takg Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), a HIV-preventn dg, affects gay and bi men’s abily to donate blood. Bra says s three-month abstence perd appli regardls of whether someone tak PrEP or not- When Atralia announced s tentn to cut the abstence perd om 12 months to three April, said people takg PrEP would still have a 12-month abstence perd- Atria lifted a blanket ban on men who have sex wh men givg blood, replacg wh a 12-month abstence perd for gay and bi men December 2019- In March, Denmark lifted s lifelong ban, implementg a prevly announced wag perd of four months- France has had a wag perd of 12 months sce 2016, when lifted a ban on gay and bisexual men givg blood that had been place sce 1983Sourc: Thomson Rters Foundatn rearch, RtersReportg by Rachel Savage @rachelmsavage and Elsa Ohlen; Addnal reportg by Fab Teixeira; Edg by Helen Popper and Hugo Greenhalgh.

GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN ARE NOW ALLOWED TO DONATE BLOOD IN ENGLAND, STLAND AND WAL

"It's te that there's a higher prevalence of HIV among gay and bisexual men, but the vast majory of gay and bisexual men don't have HIV, " said Sean Cahill, director of health policy rearch for the Fenway Instute. the New England Journal of Medice last year lookg at the rults of a cisn by the Uned Kgdom to drop a siar ban, and llg for the Uned Stat to do the add the ban n put gay and bisexual men a difficult posn when blood driv are held, forcg them to disclose their sexualy, or seem like they're choosg not to participate an altistic Wu remembers the first time he learned that he was not able to give blood bee of his sexualy, at a blood drive llege. "As a gay man, there is somethg that strik a eply paful nerve by beg told that your blood is tated, that the blood that urs through you is que lerally worthy only of beg disrd, " he asked about the agency's current policy, an FDA spokperson poted to a study is fundg lled.

Now the 38-year-old was a donatn center for the first time years, this time as part of a study that uld lead to the changg of a feral le that has angered and alienated gay men such as him. “It’s tratg not beg able to help when I’m a healthy donor, ” said Goldste, a blogy profsor who has been a monogamo relatnship wh his hband for more than a who have sex wh men have long faced rtrictns on givg blood the Uned Stat, amid ncerns about the disproportnate toll of HIV/AIDS on gay and bisexual men. Des ago, as AIDS began vastatg gay muni, the Food and Dg Admistratn advised blood centers to prohib any man who had had sex wh another man sce 1977 — even once — om FDA, which regulat blood banks, has eased the l somewhat recent years.

But gay and bisexual men are still eligible to donate if they have had sex wh another man the last three feral l have long drawn protts om physicians, policians and activists who nounce them as outdated and stigmatizg. Many were pecially upset after a mass shootg at the gay nightclub Pulse Orlando, Fla., when gay men were turned away om givg blood to help the wound.

OUR SON WAS FIGHTG FOR HIS LIFE. A GAY BLOOD DONOR BAN BLOCKED OM GIVG HELP HE NEED.

Gay men monogamo relatnships are generally barred, but “what about straight men who are havg unprotected sex wh women or engagg other risky behavr?

”Now blood banks are seekg out gay and bisexual men ci cludg Los Angel, Miami and Memphis for the Advance Study, which aims to fd out whether askg would-be donors about risky behavrs — such as havg sex whout a ndom — uld be a safe alternative to screeng out all men who have recently had sex wh men. (Gabriella Angotti-Jon / Los Angel Tim) The Red Cross and two other blood centers — Valant and OneBlood — are now enrollg sexually active gay and bisexual men the ferally fund study, askg them about risky behavrs, then llectg and ttg their blood for HIV. Sce then, “I’ve watched the world change around me” — cludg legal regnn for his marriage and gay upl livg happily on televisn and barred om givg blood, Goldste said, seems “totally out of step wh where we are.

FDA'S REVISED BLOOD DONATN GUIDANCE FOR GAY MEN STILL COURTS CONTROVERSY

“It’s hard to overstate how strong the impact of that terrible time was on blood banks, ” said Arthur Caplan, director of the divisn of medil ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medice, who opposed the lifetime lifetime ban was first eased six years ago, but only for gay and bisexual men who had not had sex wh another man for at least a year — a le that effectively ntued to bar gay men if they were at all sexually active. ” New HIV fectns have fallen signifintly sce the 1980s, but gay, bisexual and other men who have sex wh men — dubbed “MSM” feral guidance — are still h harst by the vis natnwi. " In craftg the new guidance, the FDA has been lookg to the rults of a study of about 1, 600 gay and bisexual men to velop screeng qutns that n intify potential donors who are most likely to be fected wh HIV.

Homophobia and mass shootgs are afflictns that won’t be solved overnight — but the problematic and outdated rtrictns agast gay blood donors uld be. “We fd ourselv a suatn where the victims directly affected by this tragedy and need of lifavg blood are the very people banned om donatg , ” the grassroots advocy anizatn Natnal Gay Blood Drive posted on s webse.

In 1983, as the AIDS epimic began to grip the natn, the Food and Dg Admistratn enacted a total ban on blood donatns om gay and bisexual men an attempt to keep the HIV vis out of the blood supply. In 2013, Mexi enacted a law that elimat blanket bans on gay and bisexual men and stead bans blood donatns om people wh HIV or hepatis and their partners and people who engage “risky sexual practic, ” regardls of their sexual inty. As the Washgton Post reported, OneBlood’s guil haven’t even ught up to the FDA’s most recent standard — ’s still turng away all gay men om donatg.

OPN: WILL NEW BLOOD DONATN L FALLY STOP STIGMATIZG GAY MEN?

Both are arguably at risk of ntractg the HIV vis and other diseas jt as much as a sexually active gay man — pecially if they aren’t g ndoms. If the fense of the ban is that sexually active gay men are statistilly still at high risk, then what about other mographics who have particularly high rat of HIV who have not been disqualified om donatn? Terrell Foster, a USAF veteran and gay-blood donatn advote, ments a TEDx talk on the subject, “Our technology has improved signifintly sce the dawn of the HIV crisis, and today’s tts n tect the prence of HIV jt two to four weeks after a potential exposure.

Bis beg gay, there are 30 factors — rangg om recent tattoos to heart disease to anyone who has taken Tegison for psoriasis — that eher make a person’s blood unsafe or make unsafe for a person to donate blood.

” “The current stigma surroundg gay men and our blood mak our blood ls valuable, and thereby ls profable to those the bs of sellg blood, ” says Foster.