Study: lifting US gay blood ban could save 1.8 million lives

A new study has found that lifting the ban on gay men donating blood in the US could save well over a million lives.

In the US, a law was introduced in 1983 at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis prohibiting all gay men from donating blood for life. In the UK, the law is more lenient, with gay men allowed to give blood if they abstain from having sex with other men for year.

According to the new study by the Williams Institute at the University of California, lifting the ban in the US could bring a further 615,300 pints of blood into the American healthcare system annually, while easing the ban to mirror the UK’s law regarding blood donation could bring in an additional 317,000 pints annually.

“The American Red Cross suggests that each blood donation has the potential to be used in life-saving procedures on three individuals,” explained Ayako Miyashita, one of the study’s co-authors. “Our estimates suggest that lifting the blood donation ban … could be used to help save the lives of more than 1.8 million people.”

The study analysed data collected in 2008, 2010 and 2012 from the American Red Cross, the General Social Survey and a national poll conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago. Read the findings in full here.