History study of gay blood ban recruits men in Orlando – Orlando Sentinel

Current FDA policy requires men who have had sex with other men to wait three months from their last sexual encounter before donating because of lingering concerns over HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, the infection that causes AIDS. But all donated blood is already screened for HIV, along with roughly a dozen other illnesses, and technology can now detect even infections so new that the person hasn’t yet developed antibodies, the researchers said.