“We have also alerted our clinics in the area to look out for suspect cases and refer them to the Communicable Diseases Centre (CDC) for testing”. There is no vaccine to prevent Zika, nor treatment to treat the infection to combat Zika.
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Marks added that blood testing would help in containing the spread of infection to great extent as almost one percent of blood screened in Florida was reported to have Zika virus.
Donated blood should be tested for the Zika virus, which can cause birth defects, USA regulators warned amid a mounting outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease in the United States.
“We’re recommending testing of donated blood throughout the United States and its territories”.
It’s spread by mosquito bites and sexual intercourse, but in Brazil, there’s been Zika transmission through blood transfusion.
Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said that there are about 8,000 and 2,000 travel and non-travel related Zika virus cases in the country respectively. A delay in Zika funding puts Americans at risk, President said.
In states and territories with local, mosquito-borne transmission, the recommendations will go into effect immediately.
The Food and Drug Administration wants all USA blood centers to start screening for Zika, a major expansion meant to protect the nation’s blood supply from the mosquito-borne virus.
“That’s not a sustainable solution”, Obama said. The new recommendations will stay in place until the threat of Zika transmission is reduced, the agency added.
The agency’s move to expand its previous guideline for blood screening comes after Florida officials on Tuesday announced the first case of Zika transmitted by mosquitoes in Pinellas County, some 265 miles from Miami, where the first locally transmitted USA cases were reported. “You can’t solve a fraction of a disease”, he said.
Given the frequency of travel of individuals within the United States, he said there was a risk that people without symptoms of Zika could donate blood and transmit the virus.
Florida in July announced its first cases of locally transmitted Zika, with 42 infections.
Elsewhere, Nicaragua confirmed its first case of a baby born with microcephaly linked to the Zika virus, authorities said yesterday. Symptoms can include fever, joint pain, rash and red, irritated eyes.
“As new scientific and epidemiological information regarding Zika virus has become available, it’s clear that additional precautionary measures are necessary”, said Dr. Luciana Borio, M.D., FDA’s acting chief scientist.
Last month, blood centers in Miami and Fort Lauderdale had to halt donations until they could begin screening each unit of blood.
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Seventy-eight have tested negative and five cases are pending, the reports said.
