The sole provider of blood donations to the University of Utah Health and Huntsman Cancer Institute will open up blood donations Tuesday to men who have sex with men, so long as they pass an HIV-risk screening.
Nonprofit ARUP Blood Services marks the first blood donation service in Utah to follow the new Food and Drug Administration guidance, which no long bars men from such donations based on their sexual orientation. Those restrictions were imposed amid the AIDS epidemic, but have since been scrutinized as discriminatory, outdated and “a barrier to bolstering the nation’s blood supply,” ARUP said in a news release.
In 2015, the FDA lifted its total ban on male donors who have sex with men and replaced it with a yearlong deferral, which meant such donors could only give blood if they had not had sex with a man within a year of their donation date. Five years later, that deferral period was shortened to three months.
The FDA updated its guidance again May 11. Now, all donors regardless of sexual orientation, sex or gender will answer the same set of questions to assess their HIV risk, bringing the U.S. in line with other countries like the United Kingdom and Canada.
The survey will ask if a prospective donor has had anal sex with a new partner, or multiple partners, in the last three months, according to the FDA. Those who answer yes will be deferred from donations for three months.
The updated recommendations will also defer prospective donors who are taking HIV prevention or treatment medications, such as antiretroviral therapy (ART), pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), since research shows those drugs may delay HIV detection and give false negative results, the FDA said.
The administration does not advise anyone to stop taking those medications to donate blood, and said it will continue evaluating data and technological developments to inform its donor eligibility recommendations.
“The FDA strongly believes the implementation of an individual risk-based approach will not adversely affect the safety or availability of the U.S. blood supply,” the agency said in May.
Blood donation centers receive new recommendations from the FDA and update their processes accordingly “every once in a while,” ARUP spokesperson Deb Jordan said. For instance, ARUP made changes earlier this year, when the FDA opened up blood donations to people who lived, worked or served in the military or on a religious mission in part of Europe in the ’80s and ’90s, Jordan said. Those people had previously been deferred from donating blood because of mad cow disease concerns.
Jordan said implementing such recommendations can take months, to both update prospective donor questionnaires and train staff.
“We are moving now to a more inclusive policy for blood donations,” Dr. Waseem Anani, medical director of ARUP Blood Services, said in a statement. “As regulated by the FDA, we will continue to work to make sure that we follow the policies that allow everyone who wants to donate blood to be able to donate blood.”
ARUP has blood donation centers located at 565 Komas Drive in Salt Lake City, and 9786 S. 500 West in Sandy. The blood collected there benefits University of Utah and Huntsman Cancer Institute patients undergoing bone marrow transplants or suffering from cancer, burns, trauma and surgery.
One donation can help three patients, according to ARUP’s website. To meet demand, about 75 donors are needed each day. Call 801-584-5272 or visit utahblood.org to schedule an appointment.
The American Red Cross will implement the FDA’s new guidance on Aug. 7, according to a post on its website.
