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Zika spread through sex by man with no symptoms, officials say
Friday’s advisory means all USA states and territories should begin testing blood donations for Zika.
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“There is still much uncertainty regarding the nature and extent of Zika virus transmission”, said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s biologic products center, in an agency release.
Dr. Susan Stramer, American Red Cross vice president of scientific affairs, said Friday that Red Cross was reviewing FDA’s guidance. In earlier cases of sexual transmission, the virus was spread by someone who at some point had symptoms.
Developed symptoms suggestive of Zika virus infection during the past four weeks.
Because an infection could be transmitted during sex, someone who does not have symptoms might spread the virus to an individual who then donates blood, and this could lead to an “amplification” of the crisis, explained Marks.
In Puerto Rico, where Zika arrived in December 2015, health officials have been systematically tracking cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome following reports in other countries showing an increase in cases related to Zika. “Following the advice of the FDA, on August 1, the Red Cross implemented a donor deferral for those who have traveled to Miami-Dade County during the previous four weeks”.
The Community Blood Center applied in June for use of the investigational new drug (IND) authorized by the FDA as a blood screening test for Zika.
Donated blood is already being tested in Florida and Puerto Rico, as well as in other areas, FDA officials said Friday, and expanded testing should lower the risk of Zika spreading even further. Yet two serum tests confirmed the presence of Zika antibodies in his blood.
Community Blood Center in Dayton will continue the screening methods in place to defer potential donors who have traveled to Zika endemic areas in the prior four weeks. The cost of adding Zika testing to the blood screening process is less than $10, according to officials at South Texas Blood and Tissue Center.
Zika is spread primarily by mosquito bites, as well as sex.
Though agreeing that this development could be worrisome to pregnant women, Brooks said it’s “reassuring to us at the CDC that all other cases of sexual transmission, with the exception of a possible case in France, have been between people who eventually developed symptoms”.
Dayton’s Community Blood Center said it will begin Zika testing to comply with the new recommendations by the FDA.
The mosquito-borne Zika virus has triggered an epidemic of birth defects that leave newborns with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains.
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Overall, the Guillain-Barre surveillance system identified 56 cases of the syndrome in people infected from January 1 to July 31, 2016, officials from the Puerto Rican health department and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday in the CDC’s weekly report on death and disease.