Why cant gay men donate blood
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have the disease, according to the CDC.ĭr. Still, as of 2014, 636,000 Americans had died from AIDS. Since 2000, there have been only 4 confirmed cases in the U.S. Then, as testing methods improved, the numbers dropped to the single digits per year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there were more than 9,000 transfusion-related HIV transmissions between 1981 ad 1985. Today, the odds of getting an HIV infection through a blood transfusion are one in 1.5 million, less likely than being struck by lightning. One test checks for the direct presence of HIV genetic material and the other looks for antibodies produced by the immune system to fight HIV. Typically, all blood donations are screened for HIV twice. Today, blood banks screen for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, with an acucracy rate of 99.99%, according to the FDA. Since then, advancements in testing technology have greatly improved. The policy dates back to 1982, when a abby was infected with AIDS through a blood transfusion given at the University of California San Francisco hospital Shortly after, the FDA, which regulates the nation's blood supply, instituted a lifetime ban on blood donations from all men who admitted having sex with other men. A new pilot study funded by the Food and Drug Administration could be the first step toward lifting restrictions on blood donations by gay and bisexual. Until recently, the ban was even stricter.