In May of this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) changed its guidelines to allow gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships to donate blood in the United States.
Starting in 2015, the agency began relaxing regulations imposed during the onset of the AIDS crisis in the <>s, imposing a one-year abstinence prior to donation on those in same-sex relationships between men.
For Dylan Smith, who has worked for six years at a blood donation center in Washington, the change has meant the ability to stand in his patients' shoes for the first time.
Potential donors who report having had anal sex with new partners in the past three months will not be able to donate until a later date, and anyone who has tested positive for HIV will still be ineligible. Those who take pills to prevent HIV through sexual contact still can't do so until three months after their last dose. The drugs, known as PrEP, can delay detection of the virus, the FDA said.
The donated blood is then tested for HIV, hepatitis C, syphilis, and other infectious diseases.
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