"Thanks to a new analysis of infection risk, having sex with another man will no longer permanently bar you from donating blood in the United Kingdom. Pretty soon, it won't bar you from donating blood in the United States, either. We're moving away from a blood screening policy based on sexual orientation."
This is a case of science trumping emotion. It's actually very safe. They're going to institute a safety window because there is a time period within which a person could be infected with HIV but test negative. Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) is now used as part of the blood screening package and it's far and away more accurate, sooner, than any previous test. Instead of testing for antibodies produced by the immune system in response to an HIV infection, NAT tests directly for viral DNA. So it picks up HIV 9-15 days after infection. The number of people who are inside that window is very small as you can imagine. And if they are honest on the questionnaire they will be disqualified.
In order to also catch Hepatitis-B, which has a second non-detection window after the initial infection recedes, they're making the wait period one year.
This is a case of science trumping emotion. It's actually very safe. They're going to institute a safety window because there is a time period within which a person could be infected with HIV but test negative. Nucleic Acid Testing (NAT) is now used as part of the blood screening package and it's far and away more accurate, sooner, than any previous test. Instead of testing for antibodies produced by the immune system in response to an HIV infection, NAT tests directly for viral DNA. So it picks up HIV 9-15 days after infection. The number of people who are inside that window is very small as you can imagine. And if they are honest on the questionnaire they will be disqualified.
In order to also catch Hepatitis-B, which has a second non-detection window after the initial infection recedes, they're making the wait period one year.
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