Considering the possibility of travel-related infection, the FDA guidelines issued in February for screening of donated blood in Florida is extended to all the USA territories.
Advertisement
The Community Blood Center in Dayton said Friday it will comply with the government’s new guidelines calling for all US blood banks to start screening for mosquito-borne Zika virus.
Blood testing for the virus, which has been linked to the birth defect microcephaly that is characterized by an abnormally small skull and brain, has occurred only in areas of Florida and Puerto Rico.
Procleix, the zika screening test from Hologics and a partner company, has been used by the American Red Cross to screen blood for HIV and hepatitis B and C for many years, Hologic spokeswoman Suzanne Clancy said.
The new recommendation applies “across the board to anyone collecting blood”, explained Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
Georgia and the other 10 states were chosen both for their proximity to Florida and for the relatively high number of travel-related Zika cases in each.
Around 2,200 Zika cases have been reported in the continental US and more than 13,000 in Puerto Rico, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Expanded testing will continue to reduce the risk of Zika virus transmission.
It instructed all US states and territories to screen individual units of donated blood and blood components through screening procedures from authorized FDA establishments.
Only one other case of sexual transmission of Zika without symptoms is known to the CDC.
Bowman says the process from the FDA to blood centers can be arduous; and the extra steps in testing can come with more costs, and more work.
A Malaysian is believed to be the first victim to have been infected by locally-transmitted Zika virus in Singapore.
“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.
The woman developed fever, rash and conjunctivitis on Thursday and tested positive for the virus two days later at a local hospital, where she has since been under observation, the statement said. The remaining states in that first tier include Alabama, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina and Texas.
Men who are diagnosed with Zika should wait far longer – at least six months – before attempting conception, officials said.
The statewide volume of travel-related Zika is now 545 cases since tracking began, and another 75 infections involve pregnant women.
“As she had not travelled to Zika-affected areas recently, she was likely to have been infected in Singapore”, the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the National Environment Agency said in a joint statement late Saturday.
Advertisement
Prijatel said Medic has been “proactively planning to implement changes to allow for Zika testing”, which the FDA said Tennessee and Kentucky blood centers must do within the next 12 weeks.
