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For more information contact:
Cleveland City Council
Katherine Bulava Samsa, Media Relations Manager
(216) 857-7362 |
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| Councilman Santiago introduces resolution urging the FDA to end policy that discriminates against homosexual men: |
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Councilman Joe Santiago, Ward 14, will introduce a resolution urging the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to review its policy of banning gay men from donating blood at the Cleveland City Council Meeting on February 5, 2007 at 7 pm.
Since 1977, the FDA has prohibited gay men, regardless of their sexual activity, safersex practices or HIV status, from donating blood.
“Our understanding of AIDS and prevention education has drastically increased since the FDA first imposed this limitation,” said Councilman Santiago. “The current practice unfairly discriminates against gay men and the policy should be changed.”
The American Association of Blood Banks and America’s Blood Centers have stated that the likelihood of receiving a unit of HIV-infected blood is one in two million and that blood banks now use nucleic acid testing that detects HIV with over 99% accuracy in a matter of weeks after infection.
HIV is increasingly transmitted through heterosexual sex and women account for more than a quarter on all new HIV/AIDS cases in the United States, which illustrates the discrimination inherent in the FDA’s current policy.
Councilman Santiago joins the American Red Cross and other organizations that collect donated blood in urging a policy change. These organizations worry that the FDA’s outdated policy is cutting off a potential source of blood that is needed.
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Cleveland City Council
601 Lakeside Avenue
Room 220
Cleveland, OH 44114
(216) 664-2840
(216) 664-3837 fax
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