In 2010, 63 percent of new HIV infections in adults were attributed to male-to-male sexual contact. Yet, in 2012, 56 percent of people living with HIV were MSM. Today, MSM are the population most affected by HIV. The CDC and also note that unprotected anal sex is the riskiest type of sex for HIV transmission, in part, because of the biology of the rectum. In other words, as the United Nations explains, the term includes sexual acts between men who don’t identify as gay or bisexual. On June 14, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told a reporter that the FDA’s decision to change its original 1985 recommendation on MSM blood donations to a one-year deferral was “a policy change that was made consistent with the advice of our best scientists and public health professionals.” He added that “the president believes that when it comes to these kinds of questions, that we’re going to rely on scientific advice.”Īccording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the term “MSM” indicates a behavior, not a sexual preference. But many gay and bisexual men, the population most affected by the shooting, weren’t allowed to donate because of the FDA’s current one-year deferral policy for MSM. After the shooting, blood banks in the region advertised a need for donors, according to the New York Times. citizen launched an attack in the name of Islamic State terrorist group. On June 12, 49 people were killed and 53 wounded at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, when Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old U.S. But we can outline the scientific evidence backing each side of this ongoing debate.
We take no position on whether the FDA’s blood donation policy is discriminatory against gay and bisexual men. How much scientific evidence is enough for policy change is matter of opinion.
Still, the FDA argues there is “inadequate data” to support an individual risk-based assessment for MSM blood donations for the U.S. They also cite the FDA’s own revised policy document, which states that HIV prevalence in MSM blood donors is much lower than HIV prevalence in the MSM population as a whole. Before this change, Australian state and territory policies ranged from a lifetime ban to a five-year deferral for MSM.īut the House members and other critics of the FDA policy have argued that a one-year deferral for MSM is unnecessary because advances in HIV testing have substantially reduced the risk of transmitting the virus via blood transfusions. For example, between 19, Australia changed its policy to a one-year deferral for MSM and saw no increase in HIV transmissions via blood transfusions. The FDA also uses evidence from other countries to support its case. While all blood donations are tested for HIV, current tests don’t work until approximately nine days after the virus is first transmitted, a so-called “window period.” Blood donations from MSM during this time pose a risk to the blood supply, the FDA says. The FDA cites the high prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, in the MSM population as support for its one-year deferral policy. The revised policy also defers blood donations from a woman who has had sex with an MSM for one year. 21, 2015, the FDA switched its original 1985 MSM blood donation policy from a ban on any man who has had sex with another man since 1977 to a one-year deferral.
However, Lee and others’ proposed alternative – an individual risk-based assessment which would evaluate whether potential donors’ behaviors put them at risk for transfusion-transmissible infections – also has scientific evidence to back it up. In fact, the FDA’s policy is supported by scientific evidence. Barbara Lee said on June 14, for example, that the FDA’s one-year deferral policy, or celibacy, for men who have sex with men (MSM) is “based in fear and stigma, not science.” The White House, on the other hand, claimed on the same day that the FDA’s current policy does “rely on scientific advice.” Days after the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, House members and the White House made seemingly contradictory claims concerning the Federal Drug Administration’s blood donation policy for gay and bisexual men.Ĭalifornia Rep.