FDA Remains Firm on Lifetime Deferral for Gay Men (ABC article)

A Medical Director in Southern California has obtained permission from America's Blood Centers (ABC) for the posted news article to be shared with the e-Network Forum for discussion. The article starts with "The Food and Drug Administration has rejected arguments in an April letter by seven members of Congress who asked the agency to reconsider the lifetime blood donation deferral for gay men in favor of a one-year deferral policy." Given the tenuous nature of the blood supply, the inquiring physician is concerned about the hard line stand being taken by the FDA, now that testing for HIV has evolved to the point where it is extremely unlikely that an HIV infected unit will slip through the cracks and be transfused. There is probably a much greater risk that an HIV infected autologous unit will inadvertantly be transfused to a wrong recipient, yet collection, storage and transfusion of HIV infected autologous blood is not prohibited by FDA. What is the opinion of others?

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Ira A. Shulman, MD
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