“We want to ensure that the blood supply is as safe as possible, that’s our No. 1 priority”, said Liz Lambert, a spokeswoman for Bonfils.
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Those states are Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina and Texas. It could then be transferred to the recipient through a blood transfusion.
The decision to expand blood screening in the United States was based on concerns about more cases of local transmission in Florida, the growing number of travel-related infections and concerns that Zika-tainted blood could unwittingly be given to a pregnant woman, putting her unborn baby at a risk of severe birth defects, an official release said yesterday.
Two US lawmakers, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of CT and Congressman Lloyd Doggett of Texas, had recently urged the FDA to expand testing for Zika to blood banks nationwide, saying it would cost less than $10 per donor.
“There is also risk of subsequent local transmission. we expect there may be further cases, as most infected persons may display mild or no symptoms”.
On the other hand, transfusion of contaminated blood to pregnant women could lead to severe birth defects like microcephaly to their unborn babies. An estimated 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms, however.
Four out of five people who get Zika do not show any of the common symptoms, which may include fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes. The order followed now-confirmed reports of local Zika transmission in the Miami area – the first in the continental U.S.
For months now, the blood bank has been asking potential donors if they’ve traveled to Zika-affected areas.
Diagnostic tests can not easily discern Zika from related infections, but health officials suspect almost all of the flavivirus infections seen were related to Zika because that is the predominant flavivirus now circulating in Puerto Rico. Shortly after, American Samoa and the US Virgin Islands reported similar locally transmitted infections.
The woman had not travelled to Zika-infected areas recently so health officials said she is likely to have been infected in Singapore.
With no FDA-licensed tests available for Zika, two experimental tests are being used to screen blood collected in the United States and Puerto Rico.
The FDA has authorized the emergency use of several investigational Zika screening tests, including products made by Hologic Inc (HOLX.O) and Roche Holding AG (ROG.S).
The results, however, are being confirmed through further tests, the statement added. “We carefully reviewed the information from the companies”, Marks said, “and we feel confident enough that we were able to make this recommendation”.
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Such testing also helped spot one unit of Zika-tainted blood in the past few weeks. He said the test’s accuracy meets the expectations set out by the FDA.
