Roughly speaking, the organization is 40 percent of all US blood and blood components
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued final guidance earlier this year, recommending the following: Individual risk assessment We targeted blood donors instead of gender-specific time-based questions previously used to defer blood donations.
Under the FDA’s new guidance, individuals who report having a new sexual partner or having anal sex with multiple partners in the past three months will be deferred. Sexual orientation, gender and gender are irrelevant.
Under this rule, more men who have sex with men should be able to donate blood. This also means that some heterosexuals may be put off based on their recent sexual activity.
In a statement Monday, the Red Cross included statements from cancer researcher Andrew Goldstein, who used to donate blood regularly but was put on hold due to earlier FDA’s more restrictive guidelines. is.
“There are so many things in the world that we cannot control and sometimes we have to see people in difficult situations, but the things we can do, like donating blood, seem so small. It means a lot to me,” Goldstein said. “I could do it again.”
LGBTQ stakeholders welcomed these new restrictions, go in the right directionmany say there is still room for improvement.
New guidance defers dosing for individuals taking PrEP for HIV, and FDA has expressed concern that the drug could result in: false negative Under HIV testing. About 30 percent of PrEP-benefiting individuals are currently taking PrEP, according to federal government data.
LGBTQ groups cite this issue as a reason for further investment in screening technology.
The updated regulations are meant to be more welcoming, but it remains to be seen whether it will encourage men who have sex with men to donate to more men. Decades of exclusion.
Blood donors say whether more gay and bisexual men donate will depend on how individual risk assessments are conducted.
