HIV infection is transmitted primarily by exposure to contaminated body fluids, especially blood and semen. And US health agency FDA – Food and Drug Administration has rejected appeals to lift a ban that prevents gay men from donating blood, stating that such a measure is important to fight the rising spread of AIDS.
With the introduction of blood product screening in the mid-1980s, the incidence of HIV transmission in blood transfusions has dropped to one in every 100,000 transfused.
With respect to HIV transmission among drug abusers, risk increases with the duration of using injections, the frequency of needle sharing, the number of persons who share a needle, and the number of AIDS cases in the local population.
According to the policy started in 1983, men who have had sex with other men even once since 1977 are not allowed to donate blood for transfusion. FDA is willing to change its policy, but only if concrete evidence is shown that such practice does not help the spread of AIDS.
Doctors who work at blood banks believe the move is justified. There are numerous reasons that support the ban, including the risk of false negative HIV tests and human error.
Indeed, statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that men who have sex with other men account for the largest number of people newly infected with HIV.
So, there is no point of discrimination from the decision took by US FDA. It is one of preventive measures to be considered to stop the spread of HIV / AIDS worldwide.