The “Food and Drug Administration” (FDA) has announced a change to the three-month chastity rule for gay males who wish to donate blood.
Currently, contributions are only permitted if the person has gone an entire period without having intercourse.
All potential donors would be questioned about new or numerous sexual partners in the last three months under the new personal risk-based draught criteria.
The FDA anticipates that this modification will increase blood donations. FDA Director Robert Califf said in a statement on Friday that “our approach for an independent risk analysis, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, will enable us to continue employing the finest research to assure a sufficient and secure blood supply.”
Since contemporary technology screens blood for contagious diseases, advocacy organisations have long argued that the current limits are unfair to the LGBT population.
All blood donors will be required to answer questions about their sexual history, including if they’ve had anal sex, partnered with numerous people, or had unprotected sex within the last three months. If the response to both questions is yes, a person would have to wait 3 months before donating blood.
Blood donation will still be restricted for those who are HIV-positive.
The screening of all blood will continue for conditions including HIV and hepatitis B and C.
The 1980s saw the beginning of national prohibitions on gay and bisexual men donating blood in an effort to stop the Aids pandemic.
The FDA didn’t reduce its lifetime restriction on gay males donating blood to a one-year abstinence rule until 2015.
Since the FDA must wait 60 days before finalising the rules, the adjustments will not be made for a few months.
“Director of the Institute for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the FDA, Dr Peter Marks, stated, “We are confident that the quality of the blood supply will be protected.”
Canada only abolished its three-month abstinence rule last year. Recently, blood donation limitations were also removed in Hungary, Greece, Israel, the United Kingdom France, Denmark, and Brazil.
