Members of the American Medical Association voted June 18 to fight and help reverse the long-standing rule of the Food and Drug Administration that bans gay men from donating blood.
The FDA prohibited blood donation of gay men since 1983 when reliable test for the human immunodeficiency virus was not in existence and when the spread of HIV was blamed on blood donations.
"The lifetime ban on blood donation for men who have sex with men is discriminatory and not based on sound science," emphasized Dr. William Kobler of the AMA said in a press statement.
"This new policy urges a federal policy change to ensure blood donation bans or deferrals are applied to donors according to their individual level of risk and are not based on sexual orientation alone," he added.
The medical association wants to push for the use of deferral period that are based on scientific findings and standards applied to all blood donors.
"The policy was formed at a time in our history when we didn't have a name for AIDS or HIV," said Valadez. "Our technology has advanced to the point where ... it is antiquated to keep this policy in place and to keep those units of blood from entering the blood supply," said Robert Valdez, an analyst for an advocacy group Gay Men's Health Crisis, in an interview with ABC News.
The current policy of the FDA defers men having sex with other men since 1977 are deferred as blood donors. The agency considers the particular population at high risk for hepatitis B, HIV and other infections that maybe transmitted via blood transfusion.
The statistics cited by the FDA say that only two percent of Americans are engage in male-to-male sexual activities but they are the most HIV-affected group. Men who have had sex with men (MSM) account for around 61 percent of new infections of HIV in the U.S. While the HIV cases was considered as stable between 2008 and 2010, the MSM population had a 12 percent increase with a big increase in the age group of 13 to 24 years old.
Other groups such as the Red Cross and the America's Blood Centers also advocate the reversal of the FDA policy believing while authorities are still evaluating the proposals.
