Doctors Split on the FDA’s New Policy on Blood Donations from Men Who Have Sex with Men

SERMO poll provides physician insights regarding blood donation among
gay and bisexual men

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–A new poll from SERMO, the leading global social media network
exclusively for doctors, found that doctors are split on whether or not
men who have sex with men should be required to be abstinent for a year
before donating blood. The poll was in reaction to a change in U.S. Food
and Drug Administration policy that removed the lifetime ban on blood
donation for gay and bisexual men and replaced it with a new policy that
prohibits men who have sex with men from donating blood only if they
have had sex within twelve months.

The poll found that:

• 52% of 1,523 doctors think a 12-month abstinence stipulation for men
  who have sex with men is necessary to ensure the safety of the
  nation’s blood supply.
• 63% of 1,523 doctors think that people do not truly know if they have
  engaged in risky sexual behavior.
• 78% of 3,217 doctors think the policy for men who have sex with men
  should be replaced completely by an in-depth screening for risky
  sexual behavior and drug use among all people donating blood.
• 44% of 1,523 doctors think gay and bisexual men should be allowed to
  donate blood after shorter periods of abstinence than the 12 months
  stipulated in the new FDA policy.
• Of those 674 who think that a shorter period of abstinence is okay,
  30% said that no period of abstinence is necessary and 43% said the
  waiting period should be 6 months.

The results sparked a debate on SERMO with many doctors concerned about
the safety and size of the nation’s blood supply.

“It is clear that the physician community is still unsure about what
steps are needed to ensure the safety of the nation’s blood supply while
supporting equal rights,” said Dr. James Wilson, SERMO member and Ascel
Bio infectious disease forecaster based out of the University of
Nevada-Reno. “Personally, I believe the stringent processes in place in
transfusion labs to ensure HIV is not accidentally introduced into the
blood supply will suffice, and data from the United Kingdom and
Australia demonstrate this. The ban on men who have sex with men
donating blood unless they have been celibate for twelve months is
unnecessary at this point.”

Dr. Wilson also said that he remains concerned that there is currently
an increase in both men and women engaging in risky sexual behavior and
hope that we can increase focus on that issue to mitigate the spread of
sexually transmitted infections such as HIV.

Another doctor, an internal medicine specialist, posted in SERMO, “Male
homosexuals remain the high risk group for HIV. Period. Sorry, but they
should be the last in line to donate blood.”

This SERMO poll was administered via email to a random selection of
members of the SERMO community in the United States. Participation was
voluntary and results were kept anonymous. The margin of error is ±2.5
percent. It is calculated at the standard 95 percent confidence level.
Therefore we can be 95 percent confident that the sample result reflects
the active SERMO member base within the margin of error.

The question about whether or not the ban on blood donations from men
who have had sex with men within a year should be replaced completely by
an in-depth screening for risky sexual behavior and drug use among
people donating blood was also posted within the SERMO social network,
accounting for the larger sample size (only one vote was counted per
participant). The margin of error for that question is ±1.7 percent.

About SERMO

SERMO is the leading social network for physicians – the virtual
doctors’ lounge and the home of medical crowdsourcing – where doctors
anonymously share their true feelings about their profession and lives
and talk ‘real world’ medicine. SERMO has more than 500,000 fully
verified and licensed members and is now available for doctors in
fifteen countries: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland,
Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa,
Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US. Founded in the US in 2005, SERMO’s
mission is to revolutionize real world medicine and to unite physicians,
providing them with a safe, private and trusted platform for free and
open discussions. SERMO harnesses the collective wisdom of doctors,
enabling medical crowdsourcing, knowledge sharing and thus the
advancement of medicine.

SERMO is also the world’s largest healthcare professional polling and
survey company with 1.6 million healthcare professional members in both
the social network and a digital research network, spanning 80
countries. SERMO conducts 700,000 surveys a year.

Learn more at www.SERMO.com.

Contacts

SERMO
Randi Kahn, +1 212-358-0800 x967
m: +1 631-697-8310
Public
Relations Manager
randi.kahn@sermo.com
or
Racepoint
Global
Cassidy Lawson, +1 202-517-1378
clawson@racepointglobal.com;
or
SERMO
Osnat
Benshoshan,
Chief Marketing Officer
osnat.benshoshan@sermo.com