Spurred by fears of the AIDS epidemic, 27 years ago, the federal government banned gay men from donating blood. The policy prohibited men who had sex with men -- even once -- from blood donations out of safety concerns that the HIV virus could contaminate the nation's blood supply.
But today, with better testing and safety protocols, gay rights advocates and some medical experts alike think the policy is outdated. A federal panel will take up the issue next month.
This CNN story breaks down the arguments, from gay advocacy groups who say the policy is discriminatory, to medical experts who say it's not a matter of gay-rights, but epidemiology: the rate of HIV is higher in gay men then heterosexuals, so allowing them to donate means higher risks for the blood supply. Meanwhile other physicians assert that today's blood screening is so effective the ban makes little sense.
This Scientific American piece explains how the blood screening process works. It discusses a report published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in which AIDS researchers call for an end to the ban saying it puts an unnecessary burden on blood agencies and without it, the nation's blood supply would rapidly increase. The American Red Cross and America's Blood Centers support lifting the ban. Sen. John Kerry of Mass. and other lawmakers have also called on the FDA to end the ban.
More than 38,000 blood donations are needed daily in the U.S., but only 38 percent of Americans are eligible to donate blood, and of those, only 8 percent actually do, the story states. (There are other reasons people can be ineligible to donate, including having a history of blood cancers and travel within the last 12 months to a country where malaria is typically found -- see the Red Cross' eligibility criteria here).
The story continues:
"Today's technology makes it almost impossible for HIV to slip through, and the total ban puts a huge burden on blood agencies and the blood supply," said lead author Mark Wainberg, in a prepared statement. He helped in the discovery of 3TC, one of the first drugs to control HIV. "We constantly have blood shortages that would not occur, perhaps, if we had a more reasonable policy."
What do you think?
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