Department of Health and Human Services, heterosexual people make up 23% of all new HIV diagnoses – and while there was a downward trend in infections among men who have sex with men, there had been no change in other categories, including infections of heterosexual people.ĨNews also asked the FDA why, if they were concerned with risky sexual behavior, they still excluded men in monogamous relationships with other men. Gay men do still make up the majority of new HIV cases int he United States, however, according to the U.S. The American Red Cross is asking for blood donations from healthy people in the wake of a blood crisis brought on by the omicron surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to gather data related to the possibility of using an individual risk assessment behavior-based health history questionnaire in the U.S., the Red Cross, along with One Blood, Vitalant and partner LGBTQ+ community health centers, are participating in a pilot study funded by the FDA in select cities that could potentially lead to changes for blood donor eligibility criteria for gay and bisexual men. They said the ban was based on the so-called “window period” of infection, when antibodies and the virus itself are still too low to be reliably detected by tests, but could potentially cause “the release of contaminated blood products.” The FDA RespondsĨNews asked the FDA why, if all donated blood is tested regardless, they had a policy excluding certain donors. The Virginia branch of the American Red Cross issued a strong rebuke of the FDA’s policy barring sexually active gay men from currently fighting the nationwide blood shortage.