500 health professionals signed an open letter Thursday calling on the FDA to eliminate “the scientifically outdated ban” on blood donations from gay and bisexual men. - NBCOUT
In recent weeks, gay and bisexual men who have recovered from COVID-19 have sought to donate their antibody-rich blood for experimental convalescent plasma treatments and have been rejected, adding urgency to these new calls for reform.
Modern HIV tests look for antigens, which appear in the blood days after infection. Older tests looked for antibodies, which appear weeks and perhaps even months after infection. Gay and bisexual men represent about 70 percent of all new HIV infections in the U.S., according to the CDC. Other countries, the letter states, have better addressed the issue by devising new protocols that ask people about recent risky behaviors irrespective of sexual orientation, which it described as “a much more scientifically rigorous and nondiscriminatory approach to maintaining a safe blood supply.”
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