Gay donors still need not apply.Gay men can keep ignoring those blood drives at work and the desperate pleas from local health officials to replenish blood supplies: They still don't want your plasma. In a 7-6 decision a U.S. Food and Drug Administration committee voted September 14 to keep in place a 15-year-old rule disallowing blood donations from men who have had sex with other men anytime since 1977. Ignoring gay activists and health advocates concerned about cutting out an entire population of potential donors, the committee dismissed a proposal to shrink the ban down to cover only men who have had sex with men within the past five years. Policy proponents insist it minimizes the HIV HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), either of two closely related retroviruses that invade T-helper lymphocytes and are responsible for AIDS. There are two types of HIV: HIV-1 and HIV-2. HIV-1 is responsible for the vast majority of AIDS in the United States. risk to the blood supply, noting that despite current testing efforts, one unit of blood in 450,000 to 660,000 available for medical use contains AIDS virus AIDS virus n. See HIV. . But others see it as stereotyping, since many other populations permitted to donate have similar risks of carrying HIV. "Apparently the FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. is comfortable that heterosexual men have lived antiseptic antiseptic, agent that kills or inhibits the growth of microorganisms on the external surfaces of the body. Antiseptics should generally be distinguished from drugs such as antibiotics that destroy microorganisms internally, and from disinfectants, which destroy lives since 1977," grouses Las Vegas Las Vegas (läs vā`gəs), city (1990 pop. 258,295), seat of Clark co., S Nev.; inc. 1911. It is the largest city in Nevada and the center of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. gay activist Lee Plotkin. "Let's hope all blood donors who have not put themselves at any risk since 1977 start pumping it out--both of them." |
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