26, 2016, the Food and Drug Administration recommended that all USA blood banks start screening for the Zika virus, a major expansion meant to protect the nation’s blood supply from the mosquito-borne disease.
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Things are much worse in the USA territory of Puerto Rico, where federal health officials have declared a public health emergency because Zika is spreading so rapidly among residents there. Screening will initially extend to states along the Gulf Coast and a few others.
“There is still much uncertainty regarding the nature and extent of Zika virus transmission”, said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
Blood banks already test for HIV, West Nile and hepatitis, among other blood-borne viruses.
Zika virus is transmitted primarily by the Aedes mosquito.
It has now spread to over 20 countries in the Americas-including the United States-as well as the Caribbean and Samoa. Miami tourism officials said hotel managers have not alerted them to bookings weakness related to the Zika virus. It can cause a mild illness, with fever, rash and joint pain.
Santa Barbara County Public Health officials confirmed the first case of travel-associated Zika Virus in Santa Barbara County on Thursday. All of the cases have been people who traveled to Zika-affected areas.
The Centers for Disease Control recommends that pregnant women postpone travel to regions where the virus has been identified.
The FDA’s guidance is not binding, but it is routinely followed by blood centers.
Blood testing began last month in parts of Florida after the first cases of homegrown Zika occurred in Miami.
In a news conference Friday, Marks said that there had been one case in Florida where a unit of donated blood was tested and taken out of the blood supply. Two years later, health officials declared an outbreak in the Brazilian state of Bahia.
The FDA also recommends that anyone who has traveled recently to an area where the Zika virus is active refrain from donating blood.
America’s Blood Centers, a network of 63 blood centers with 600 donation sites in 45 US states, is now testing for Zika primarily in Florida, where local transmission has been reported.
FDA officials said they do not anticipate any problems supplying the tests throughout the U.S.
Ziman said with the testing on top of the questioning already being done about people’s travel histories to places where Zika is being spread, she believes the risk of getting Zika through a blood transfusion “is really low”. Those states include Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina and Texas.
Not only that, the virus will likely spread to several other southeastern states, with handfuls of cases cropping up from Texas to SC and even Oklahoma, the scientists added.
An executive for America’s Blood Centers, which has more than 600 locations in the US and Canada, warned that the amount of work needed to comply with the FDA’s timeline is “titanic”.
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The expansion isn’t effective across the country immediately, but should be started within 12 weeks.
