USA health officials on Friday reported the first case of Zika spread through sex by a man with no symptoms of the disease.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended on Friday that all blood donated in the United States and its territories be tested for Zika virus, as it moves to prevent transmission of the virus through the blood supply. So far, there have been about 40 cases of homegrown Zika in Florida.
That’s surprising, perhaps, given all the dire predictions before the games about how the Olympics might help spread the mosquito-borne virus. Once infected, a person can spread it to another through sexual contact.
Many people with Zika will not experience symptoms or will have only mild symptoms.
Donor blood can be another important source of Zika transmission.
There’s been a lot of talk about Zika, but before you start wringing your hands and taping off your windows and doors, there are a few things you should know about the virus. But that would not be enough to meet demand under CDC’s worst-case scenario for a domestic Zika outbreak.
Screening potential donors before they give blood is unreliable, since four out of five infected people never develop any outward sign of infection. Several testing sites are already voluntarily using the technology, including blood centres in Texas.
Blood banks already test donations for HIV, hepatitis, West Nile virus and other blood-borne viruses. Versions that look for Zika are still undergoing final FDA review. Blood banks and donation centers adhere to those guidelines.
Marks said two companies have been granted special approval to have their tests used to screen the blood supply.
USA officials said they don’t expect to see a Zika epidemic in the United States similar to those in Latin America.
Although there’s no longer any need to ask potential donors about their recent travel to regions affected by Zika, any prospective blood donor who says they have been infected with Zika should be asked to wait until their symptoms have resolved or for 120 days, whichever is longer, the FDA said.
The researchers have reported in the journal Cell that the virus not only lives and multiplies in the vagina, but can later infect a fetus directly. All blood collection should be put on hold until the new procedures can be implemented, the FDA advises.
Since the Zika outbreak began a year ago in Brazil, thousands of babies whose mothers were infected with Zika early in pregnancy have been born with a devastating birth defect known as microcephaly, in which the head and brain are abnormally small.
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On the list: Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina and Texas.
