An announcement has been made in the Federal Register of a meeting of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability, Thursday, June 10 and Friday, June 11, 2010. This meeting will discuss the lifetime blood donation deferral policy for gay and bisexual men. The notice indicates how the Committee will receive public input on the issue, including a public hearing.
Ban on Blood Donation by Gay and Bisexual Men
Under a federal rule adopted in 1983, any man who has had sex with another man since 1977, even once, is banned for life from donating blood. Blood donation policy is set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and agencies that collect blood donations, such as the American Red Cross, are bound by it. More background about the policy and its history is available here.
For many years, HRC has urged FDA to revise this policy, formulated during the height of the AIDS crisis, which does not reflect the most up-to-date understanding of HIV transmission and unnecessarily stigmatizes gay and bisexual men and turns away healthy potential donors. HRC included lifting the blood donation ban [pdf] as part of its Blueprint for Positive Change, a series of policy recommendations to the Obama administration.
Latest Developments
In March, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in response to a letter from Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and seventeen other Senators, announced that they will review this long-standing policy at a meeting of HHS’s Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability this summer.
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