Activists say lifting the policies could save more than one million lives.
restrict men who have sex with men, commonly referred to as MSM, from donating blood within 12 months of their last sexual encounter. The policy harkens back to the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s, which disproportionately impacted MSM.
"As such, it is imperative that we move away from discriminatory donor deferral policies that prohibit many healthy individuals from contributing much-needed blood and blood products," the letter reads.Instead, they're asking the FDA to base blood donation eligibility on individualized situations rather than"inaccurate stereotypes."
Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis. But even so, Kirchner said that all blood, regardless of the donor, is screened for a list of diseases -- including HIV-1 and HIV-2.
That risk, however, is the period of time between when a person may have been exposed to HIV, and when a test can determine if an individual has the virus. This"window period," according to the Centers for Disease Control, can range anywhere from 10 days after exposure to up to three months after. She continued,"And I think that what this does is just reinforce the notion that there's something wrong with being gay or being bisexual, and that is not a good thing, especially when medical medicine has far surpassed that notion."
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