Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in America eased its restrictions on blood donation by gay and bisexual men, bringing down the deferral period from one year to three months.
The move was taken to allow more blood donors during the coronavirus pandemic and now a new pilot scheme could remove blood restrictions permanently.
The pilot scheme, called Assessing Donor Variability and New Concepts in Eligibility (Advance) is looking for 2,000 men to be recruited from community health centres in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Memphis, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, Washington, D.C.
and Baton Rouge. It is being fronted by three of the biggest blood donation centres in the United States, Vitalant, OneBlood and the American Red Cross.