FDA Considers Policy Changes Allowing Homosexual Males to Give Blood
by Mary Rettig
March 8, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A Tennessee hematologist and spokesman for the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) feels the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's decision to revisit bans on certain blood donors based on behaviors raises some interesting questions.
The FDA held a conference today to discuss a possible change in policy based on better blood testing for diseases. The change could mean that homosexual men, who are currently excluded as donors, would be able to give blood.
The American Association of Blood Banks has advocated for a policy that would allow homosexual men who have abstained from sexual intercourse for one year to donate blood. But Dr. Al Weir of the CMDA says the main question comes down to how best to protect the public from infected blood.
"If our laboratory tests are so good that, no matter what the behavior of a patients is, we can absolutely exclude the disease," Weir explains, "then, yes -- it would be fine for the population to be exposed to blood from that behavioral group." But if, on the other hand, the tests are not good enough, he says, "then we still need to ask behavioral questions and exclude certain groups that have a high risk for infection."
Right now, screening techniques to test for HIV are good, the blood specialist points out, "but they may not be good enough." One reason for that, he notes, is the fact that there is still a window of time between when the virus is present in the bloodstream and when it is detectable.
Also, Weir says a number of questions still need to be answered about the screening process. The discussion is largely about nucleic acid testing, which is considered quite reliable and accurate, he explains.
Some medical researchers think nucleic acid testing could theoretically decrease the "window period" of HIV infection from the current 16 days to approximately 10 days and also cut down the window period of the hepatitis C virus -- another sexually transmitted infection -- from the current 70 to 80 days to approximately 10 to 30 days. This could, in theory, lower the risk of some blood transfusion-transmitted infections from approximately 1 in 100,000 units of blood transfused to 1 in 500,000 units transfused, or possibly even less.
Of course, Weir points out, "One out of 500,000 is not good enough if you're that one that catches HIV." Therefore, in addition to blood testing, one would like "to have had some behavioral screening questions as well, if there's a high-risk group that could transmit at that error level," he says.
The American Association of Blood Banks has said it plans to release a joint statement with the American Red Cross regarding their policies on blood donations from homosexual men after the FDA's conference.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
