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The Williams Institute for Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy at the UCLA School of Law, which has done a lot of excellent population studies in the past, has a new report out estimating the effects of lifting the ban on blood donations from men who have sex with men. It's a ban that the American Red Cross and American Association of Blood Banks calls "medically and scientifically unwarranted" and is also blatantly, discriminatory, given that individuals who have HIV-positive opposite-sex partners are asked to defer donations for one year, but a gay man has sex just once since 1977 with a positive OR negative partner, and he is slapped with a lifetime ban. The current ban excludes nearly 7 million potentially eligible men from becoming donors. It makes no sense.
Next week on June 10-11, the HHS Advisory Council on Blood Safety and Availability will meet to reconsider the FDA ban.
The Williams Institute used the 2000-2008 General Social Survey and 2008 American Community Survey to estimate the number of men who have sex with men in their lifetime; in the past five years; and in the past twelve months. Based on the direction a number of other countries have gone, the FDA rule could be revised to a deferral based on risk rather than orientation, or a one-year deferral, which other countries, such as Sweden, Australia and Japan , have adopted. My hope is that the one-year deferral also adopts risk as a factor. The Williams Institute also uses American Red Cross statistics on the number of donors among the eligible population and the number of donations per eligible donor. Their results:
If the current MSM ban were completely lifted, we estimate that an additional 130,150 men would likely donate 219,200 additional pints of blood each year.
If MSM who have not had sexual contact with another man in the past twelve months were permitted to donate, we estimate that 53,269 additional men are likely to donate 89,716 pints each year. If MSM who have not had sexual contact with another man in the past five years were permitted to donate, we estimate that 42,286 additional men would make 71,218 blood donations.
You can read the full report here. There is also an FDA ban on organ donation by MSMs who have had sex in the past five years. The Williams Institutes estimates a 2.9% increase in donations, or about 900 more organ donations per year.
A very good friend of mine has just started chemotherapy this week for a very aggressive leukemia, a kind of blood cancer. She's received four whole blood transfusions and a platelet transfusion so far. This healthy, HIV negative, type O negative donor would be first in line to donate to her to help her stay alive, and there should be no reason I can't. Revising the ban is the medically sound thing to do to help people like my friend, eliminate a blatantly discriminatory practice, and improve the nation's health.
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