The Food and Drug Administration recently revised its blood donor eligibility recommendations, which could expand the number of people eligible to donate. This news comes one year after the American Red Cross declared a severe blood shortage exacerbated by the pandemic.
The new guidelines include asking all potential donors a set of risk-based questions, regardless of their sexual orientation, gender or sex. There will no longer be blanket exclusions on gay men, or men who have sex with men — exclusions that some LGBTQ groups argued were discriminatory.
“FDA has finally looked at the evidence," Arthur Caplan said on Boston Public Radio on Wednesday. Caplan is founding head of the division of medical ethics at NYU School of Medicine. He has long campaigned for this revision, which now aligns with policies in the United Kingdom and Canada.
This policy eliminates screening questions specific to men who have sex with men and women who have sexual relationships with men who have sex with men. Instead, all potential donors will answer a new set of risk-based questions to narrow the criteria of eligibility. Those who have recently had new or multiple sexual partners and anal sex will be excluded. Additionally, people who are taking medications to prevent HIV infection, like PrEP, will still not be allowed to donate.
Asking these specific questions about risk factors, rather than sexual preferences, is “absolutely the correct thing to do,” said Caplan. Especially because U.S. hospitals are still short on blood, he added.
Only about 3% of age-eligible people donate blood yearly, according to the American Red Cross. And about 29,000 units of red blood cells are needed every day in the U.S.
