Now, The gay men can be channeled his desire to help others through blood donor after the United States government removed the ban on blood donation for gay men.
Prohibition prevailing since 1985, since the beginning of the AIDS crisis in the world, it says, homosexual men who had sex with same-sex since 1977 forbidden to donate blood.
Revision of the ban reason is the development and innovation undertaken by the scientists in the last 25 years, particularly in blood screening and detection of HIV. Currently the latest technology has been able to detect HIV in the blood since two weeks after infection.
Now, the U.S. Government policies applied more to see the behavior of individuals rather than their sexual orientation. Therefore, before donating blood, each donor will be asked to fill out question sheets to determine the risk of disease transmission.
"When the ban was imposed in the early 1980s has actually been appropriate considering the technological limitations at that time. But then the technology develops very rapidly to find out what's in the blood," said Chris Collins, vice director of the foundation's AIDS Research, a Washington, DC, USA.
U.S. Red Cross together with the American Association of Blood Banks and America Blood Center also supports the removal of the ban. In a statement, they mention gay men should be allowed to donate blood, 12 months since the last time their sexual contacts.
Although the FDA states of HIV transmission through blood donations from gay men 15 times higher, various studies mentioned, with a sophisticated screening system, it can be avoided. In addition, according to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, did not occur during the year 2002-2007 of HIV transmission through blood transfusion.
Nevertheless, the expert panel recommended the government to do research on the effectiveness of pre-screening protocol for gay men to prevent HIV transmission. Further research will also be conducted to determine who most at risk of disease transmission.
