Officials with United Blood Services said they have been ahead of the curve, testing blood donations for the Zika virus for a month now.
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The FDA says its recommendation comes after taking into consideration “all available scientific evidence, consultation with other public health agencies, and taking into consideration the potential serious health consequences of Zika virus infection to pregnant women and children born to women exposed to Zika virus during pregnancy”.
The expansion of testing won’t happen all at once.
Blood donation centers across the nation will soon start testing blood samples for the Zika virus.
Those states are Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina and Texas. These states include areas where Zika is actively spreading by various means, including mosquitoes and sexual transmission.
Zika continues to affect Californians as another 19 people have tested positive for the virus, though none of them contracted it locally, state health officials announced Friday.
Asked on a conference call with reporters about funding the new safeguards, Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the F.D.A.s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said, I cant speak to the cost of implementation at this time..
To help residents resolve questions about the virus and its spread, the state of Florida has set up a Zika Virus Information Hotline at 1-855-622-6735.
There has been a total of 2,517 documented cases of Zika in US states and the District of Columbia, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Blood banks nationwide already test donations for HIV, hepatitis and West Nile, among other blood-borne viruses.
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“From the reports WHO received from national health authorities, there have so far been no laboratory confirmed cases of Zika virus in spectators, athletes or anyone associated with the Olympics”, WHO said.
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.
Zika also can be spread through sex, and Marks said that played into the decision to expand testing.
“The blood supply is safe, will remain safe, even after the institution of this test”, Pilgrim said.
There have been no cases of Zika related to blood transfusions in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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In addition to the new cases involving pregnant women, three travel-related cases were reported in Broward County, three were in Pinellas County, and single cases were reported in Collier, Hillsborough, Orange and Sarasota counties.
