Based on Food and Drug Administration regulations set in 1985,
any man who has had sex with another man since 1977 is under a
lifelong ban from donating blood or blood products.
Any woman who has had sex with any individuals described above
is also banned.
“I feel that it’s discrimination,” Jack Raab,
director of the UCLA Events Office, said at a Wednesday event
commemorating the new location of the LGBT Resource Center.
Raab compared the banning of certain men from donating blood to
racial segregation of the past.
Figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
revealed that sexually active gay men accounted for 13,562 reported
AIDS cases in 2000. The statistics are the latest available from
the centers.
This number is significantly larger than the 8,531 cases due to
drug use and the 6,530 cases involving heterosexual
relationships.
“These numbers are why (the FDA) continues to not change
the regulations,” said Linda Goss, outreach and recruitment
coordinator for the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center.
In past years, the FDA has reviewed its regulations regarding
blood donations numerous times but continues to maintain the rules
concerning gay donors.
“These are federal rules, and each county is obligated to
apply them,” said Norma Arceo, a spokeswoman for the
California Department of Health Services.
“The state cannot override those rules,” she
added.
Some students believe that as there is enough technology to
detect viruses and diseases in blood, gay men should be allowed to
donate blood.
Daniel Nguyen, a first-year biology and philosophy student,
believes it cannot be assumed all gay men are infected with HIV
just because they are at a higher risk compared to heterosexual
people.
Even with the FDA ban in effect, a sample of all donations is
tested for the human immunodeficiency virus, and studies conducted
by the FDA have shown there could be a period of up to two months
between the time the virus enters the body and the time the HIV
antibody test can identify the virus.
This period in which HIV still is transmittable is referred to
as a “window period.” New tests are continuously being
proposed to further reduce this window.
These control measures have been effective in reducing the risk
of transmission of HIV through blood transfusion to one incident
per one million cases. To prevent these incidents, prospective
donors are warned not to use blood donations as a way to get tested
for HIV.
Still, it is the existence of the window period that concerns
Nguyen when it comes to the possibility of receiving blood from a
gay donor.
“I would prefer not to get that blood, but if that is the
only option, I’m OK with it as long as the blood is not
infected.” Nguyen said.
Other students were not worried about the source of a blood
transfusion under the current screening abilities and
requirements.
“I would not mind receiving (blood from a gay donor) since
the blood is tested,” said first-year computer science
student Will Chang.