The Food and Drug Administration is recommending that blood banks screen all blood donations in the US for the Zika virus.
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The earlier FDA guidance on Zika testing, issued on February 16, had also recommended that blood donor centers “use pathogen-reduction devices, or halt blood collection and obtain Whole Blood and blood components from areas of the USA without active virus transmission”.
On Friday, the organization told all blood banks in the U.S.to start screening donated blood for the Zika virus.
MEDIC Regional Blood Center announced Friday preparations to begin testing all blood donations for the Zika virus. However, the state agency lowered its overall number of non-travel related cases from 43 to 42.
“Over 8,000 travel-associated and over 2,000 non-travel associated cases of Zika have been reported in the United States and USA territories”, Mr Marks said.
Blood center officials say screening for Zika is important but they’re afraid people may be mis- informed and avoid donating blood altogether. CBC applied in June for use of the investigational new drug (IND) authorized by the FDA as a blood screening test for Zika.
French researchers in April reported a similar case of a couple without symptoms who both tested positive for Zika.
“We’ve had no cases locally that were acquired locally, they were all acquired somewhere else”, Washoe County Health District’s Dr. Randall Todd said.
Doctors believe the transmission of the virus from an infected person with no symptoms is extremely rare; it may be that they have smaller amounts of virus in their blood and bodily fluids and are less infectious.
Since then, the virus has been reported in several territories outside South America, including North America, the Caribbean, Western Pacific and Africa.
The Red Cross says it is now reviewing the FDA’s recommendation before deciding whether to test all blood products nationwide for Zika.
The FDA says this will ensure that all blood is safe for those who may need a transfusion.
“We certainly have a lot of people traveling back and forth, we have the mosquitoes that can transmit it … so we were certainly a place at risk”, he said.
In issuing the new recommendations, the agency noted that 4 out of 5 people infected with Zika virus never develop symptoms.
The primary concern is pregnant women and women who plan to become pregnant because Zika is known to cause microcephaly, which stunts the brains and skulls of fetuses in infected women.
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Dr. Pandey says the blood bank started a pilot Zika-testing program in July which it will now expand.
