Amid what it's calling an "urgent need for blood," the Food and Drug Administration revised its blood donor guidelines on Thursday, significantly easing the restrictions on men who have sex with men.
The new guidelines reduce the donation deferral period for sexually active gay and bisexual men from 12 months to three, meaning these otherwise healthy men will now have to abstain from same-sex sexual activity for 90 days before they are eligible to donate blood.
Other 12-month deferral periods have also been shortened under the new guidelines, including those for people who have traveled to areas with certain endemic diseases, those who have engaged in injection drug use and people who have participated in commercial sex work.
Restrictions on gay blood donors date to 1983, during the height of the AIDS crisis, when the federal government instituted a lifetime ban on blood donations by any man who had ever had sex with another man. The rule, intended to keep HIV out of the blood supply, was replaced in 2015 with the year-long abstinence requirement.
Prior to the release of Thursday's updated guidelines, restrictions on blood donations from gay and bisexual men - who represent about 70 percent of all new HIV infections in the U.S. - had come under increased scrutiny from lawmakers and LGBTQ advocates, particularly after coronavirus fears forced the cancellation of many in-person blood drives.
In a Thursday call with reporters, Surgeon General Jerome Adams said it's "critically important" that people livin... (Read more)
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