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US to Ease Lifetime Ban on Blood Donations From Gay Men

© Sputnik / Grigoriy Sisoev / Go to the mediabankA donor gives blood at the Blood Center
A donor gives blood at the Blood Center - Sputnik International
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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced plans to lift an existing ban on blood donations from gay men, according to FDA Director Margaret Hamburg.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing to change the limits on blood donations from homosexual men from a life ban to a one-year deferral - Sputnik International
US Could Cancel Life Ban on Blood Donations From Homosexual Men
MOSCOW, December 24 (Sputnik) — The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced plans on Tuesday to lift an existing ban on blood donations from gay men, replacing it with new regulations that allow homosexuals to donate but only after a one-year abstention from sex, FDA Director Margaret Hamburg said in a statement.

"The agency will take the necessary steps to recommend a change to the blood donor deferral period for men who have sex with men from indefinite deferral to one year since the last sexual contact," the statement published on FDA official website read.

According to the statement, the FDA will make the draft wording for the policy change open for public consultation in 2015.

The ban, which the United States put in place in 1983, when the AIDS epidemic was spreading quickly within the gay community, intended to prevent the spread of the virus through blood donations.

Medical experts, as well as gay rights activists, however, consider the restriction outdated.

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LGBT activists group Lambda Legal, which advocates for the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV, questioned whether the introduction of a one-year abstinence period for gay men is a significant change to the ban.

"This is a step in the right direction, but blood donation policy should be based on current scientific knowledge and experience, not unfounded fears, generalizations and stereotypes," Scott Schoettes, Lambda Legal Senior Attorney and Director of the HIV Project said in statement following the FDA announcement.

Schoettes claimed that "merely changing the parameters of this outdated policy does not alter its underlying discriminatory nature, eliminate its negative and stigmatizing effects, nor transform it into a policy based on current scientific and medical knowledge."

Easing of restrictions for gay blood donors from an indefinite period to one year would bring the United States into line with such countries as Australia, Argentina, Japan and some European countries, including the United Kingdom.

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The United Kingdom, excluding Northern Ireland, lifted lifetime restrictions on blood donations from men who have sex with men in 2011 and replaced it with a one-year abstinence period, after a scientific study revealed that the risk of HIV virus spreading through blood donations from gay men is not significantly higher than through donations from heterosexuals.

The policy of such EU countries as Germany, France, Austria and Netherlands, among others, is in line with the current US stance, in that they prohibit men who have ever engaged in homosexual sex from donating blood for an indefinite period.

Such countries as Canada and New Zeland allow gay men to become blood donors if they have abstained from homosexual sex for five years.

Some countries that have no ban on blood donations from gay men include Russia, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Italy, Uruguay and South Africa.

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