Government health advisers voiced concerns about lifting the nation’s 31-year-old ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men, despite growing pressure from gay rights advocates, medical experts and blood banks, but a daylong hearing produced no votes or official recommendations on whether to accept any change.
A Food and Drug Administration official signaled to the FDA’s Blood Products Advisory Committee (BRAC) that funding for a national, comprehensive blood-monitoring system was being discussed, but offered no details on whether and when it could be implemented.
Some panelists also lamented that the views of the Obama administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell on changing the blood donor policy for men who have sex with men (MSM) were still unclear.
Last month, an HHS advisory panel recommended that the current MSM policy — which bans men as blood donors if they have had sex with a man since 1977 — be changed to a “deferral” of 12 months after the last sexual encounter with a man.
The FDA panel on Tuesday heard reports on scientific studies aimed at changing the blood-donor system to admit some gay and bisexual men, as well as ways to see if there is an increase in the number of infected units.
The FDA’s own experts did not overwhelmingly embrace the push to ease the ban.
SEE ALSO: Blood bank organizations urge against policy change on gay donors
“If I look at the science, I would be very wary of a one-year deferral,” said Dr. Susan Leitman. “It sounds to me like we’re talking about policy and civil rights rather than our primary duty, which is transfusion safety.”
According to a 2011-2012 study, the most sensitive blood test caught 14 units of HIV-infected blood, 13 units of Hepatitis B-infected blood and 60 units of Hepatitis C-infected blood. These 87 units had slipped past other serological tests, which caught some 4,400 units of blood infected with these pathogens.
BRAC panelist Corey S. Dubin, president of Committee of Ten Thousand, a blood-users group, urged federal officials to ensure that any change in the MSM policy is accompanied by a fully funded, comprehensive national blood-monitoring system. Any assurances about blood safety “evaporate” without that system, he said.
Miriam O’Day, an official with Alpha 1 Foundation, another blood-users group, asked the panel to stay focused on “the recipients, not on the donors.” This is about ensuring blood safety, she said. “It’s not a political issue.”
Gay rights groups and their allies applauded efforts to eliminate the MSM ban, but did not endorse the proposed one-year deferral, except as a possible first step.
All donors should be deferred based on their “high-risk” behaviors, advised Dr. Jesse Joad, president- elect of GLMA, formerly known as the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.
“What is the scientific rationale behind preventing an HIV-negative man in a longtime monogamous relationship with an HIV-negative partner from donating blood?” she asked
“We also recommend that the deferral period for risky behavior be defined as within the previous six months,” said Kimberly Miller, policy officer at the HIV Medicine Association.
• Cheryl Wetzstein can be reached at cwetzstein@washingtontimes.com.
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