The Food and Drug Administration is recommending certain guidelines for blood donations and donors while the Zika virus remains prevalent in Central and South America.
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The agency recommended that donors at risk for the virus be deferred for four weeks and the entire blood and blood components for transfusion be obtained from areas of the United States without active transmission.
The Zika virus is spread to people primarily through infected mosquitos, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Brazil is investigating a surge in the number of cases across the country in conjunction with the outbreak of Zika, but it has not yet been proved that the virus can cause microcephaly.
Columbus Public Health is trying to stay one step ahead of the Zika virus by launching an aggressive public-awareness campaign and beefing up monitoring during mosquito season.
Scientists in Brazil have detected the Zika virus in the amniotic fluid surrounding two babies in the womb who were diagnosed with microcephaly, increasing the likelihood that the virus is a cause of the rare birth defect. But most people experience no symptoms or very mild ones, and the antibody test used to tell afterward if they were infected isn’t very accurate. An infection will typically clear up on its own and in about 80 percent of the cases, symptoms will not even show up.
“The strategy focuses on mobilising and coordinating partners, experts and resources to help countries enhance surveillance of the Zika virus and disorders that could be linked to it”, World Health Organization said.
The recommendation is mainly based on the view that the virus may not give any symptoms during the initial days of infection.
More alarming, however, is the virus’ suspected role in causing microcephaly among newborns if their mother catches the virus while pregnant.
“There is no evidence of human-to-human transmission other than the two cases of sexual transmission recently reported”.
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A far north Queensland council will survey hotspots for the aedes aegypti mosquito in response to the threat of Zika virus. The study has declared that 460 of these cases are of microcephaly while 41 of these cases are of zika, but yet no association between both has been found. When an emergency hits – from a sudden disease outbreak like Zika, to a typhoon or quake – Unicef responds rapidly to make sure the children and families at most risk get the help they need to stay healthy and safe.
