Unfortunately, these bans further perpetuate the stigma that associates gay men with HIV.
Despite this, in an effort to further curb the spread of HIV, the FDA also imposed a ban on anonymous sperm donation by gay men.
In fact, the CDC estimated that at the end of 2007, more than 571,000 people in the United States were living with HIV/AIDS, but only slightly more than half of those cases were a result of male-to-male sexual contact, with the fastest growing risk group being heterosexuals. HIV was identified as the cause of AIDS two years later and, after an HIV screening test was developed, the FDA mandated HIV screening for the blood supply in 1985.īack in 1981, it made sense to exclude gay men from blood donation, but now transmission of HIV through blood transfusion is extremely rare - less than 1% of all new HIV infections, according to the CDC. Blood safety officials took the step of excluding from blood donation those emerging as the first “risk groups”: gay men. Little was known about the then-mystery syndrome, but it was soon recognized that it was transmissible through blood products. Soon after an epidemic was recognized in gay men in 1981, individuals who received blood transfusions also began developing a disease that ultimately would be termed AIDS.
