FDA declines to lift ban on homosexual men as blood donors

doi:10.1136/bmj.321.7263.722

BMJ 2000;321:722 ( 23 September )

News

FDA declines to lift ban on homosexual men as blood donors

Deborah Josefson, San Francisco

An advisory panel of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has narrowly voted to maintain the ban on blood donations fromhomosexual men. The vote was 7-6 to maintain the ban. Under theFDA's rules, men cannot give blood if they have had sex with anotherman at least once since1977.

The FDA was considering changing the blood donation rule to ban only men who had had sex with another man within the pastfive years. The rule came into force originally in 1985 to protectthe blood supply fromHIV.

Critics claim that the ban is discriminatory and outdated, as other high risk groups such as prostitutes, intravenous drugusers, and promiscuous heterosexuals are deferred from donationonly one year from their last high riskencounter.

Moreover, more sensitive HIV screening tests are used now than when the rule was initially formulated. Since blood and bloodproducts are in short supply, many favour lifting the ban. Anestimated 62300 homosexual men would donate blood if the ban werelifted, according to the FDA. About 8% of the US male homosexualpopulation is HIVpositive.

The issue has polarised the nation's blood banks, with half supporting easing the policy even more $---$ to one year instead offive $---$ and the other half, including the American Red Cross, opposinganychange.

Even with the current restrictions, blood screening is imperfect. Of 12 million units of donated blood each year, 10 HIV infectedunits slip through, accounting for two to three cases of donortransmitted HIV infections a year. (See p 772, Medicine and Media.)