Moreover, this revised policy may not meaningfully increase the donor pool, given that waiting until 3 months after sexual contact amounts to a lifetime blood donation ban for many men. Although a step forward from the 12-month policy, a deferral period of 3 full months is not necessary to protect patients ( 7, 8). Close to two dozen Senate Democrats have called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to provide an update on its efforts to change what they refer to as discriminatory blood donor deferral. Despite this improvement, the FDA continues to exclude otherwise healthy MSM through arguably discriminatory policy. The window between infection and detection has dropped to 9 days ( 5, 6). The false-negative rates of modern HIV nucleic acid tests fall around 0.05%. This success is due to advances in screening, not to banning MSM from donating blood.
Today, the risk of contracting HIV or hepatitis B/C through transfusion is less than 1 in 2 million, and the incidence is substantially lower ( 5). In 2015, the lifetime ban was changed to 12 months from last sexual contact ( 4). In 1983, the FDA indefinitely barred all MSM from donating blood for fear of transmitting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B/C by transfusion. Up until 2015, the FDA had enforced a lifetime ban on blood donations from men who had sex with men (MSM), regardless of sexual orientation a policy originating from an emergency safety.
