Tests on donated blood will be stepped up in the United States. Zika virus joins the list of infections sought.
Testing for the Zika virus was already mandatory for blood donations in Puerto Rico and certain areas of Florida, areas particularly affected by the epidemic. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US drug agency, released a document recommending blood donation centers across the country to systematically test the samples collected.
“In view of the new scientific and epidemiological information gathered concerning the Zika virus, it is clear that more stringent precautionary measures must be taken,” said Dr. Luciana Borio, chief scientist of the FDA. We have issued these new recommendations for immediate implementation, in order to maintain the safety requirements of the blood supply in the United States. “
The problem of asymptomatic donors
Since the discovery of a first indigenous case in Puerto Rico last December, the epidemic has continued to grow in the United States, quickly reaching American Samoa and the Virgin Islands. In July, the first cases of direct transmission were identified on the mainland, in Florida.
A first case of sexual transmission by an asymptomatic carrier has also been reported by the American authorities, which raises concerns about possible contamination of the blood donation network. The combination of local contamination and the possibility of transmission of the virus by people without symptoms makes the exclusion of people at risk more difficult.
“Ensuring access to healthy blood”
“There is still a lot of uncertainty regarding the nature and extent of transmission of the Zika virus,” acknowledges Dr. Peter Marks of the FDA. Under these conditions, recommendations for testing the entire blood supply will help ensure access to healthy blood for all those in need of a transfusion ”.
This new test is in addition to those intended to detect the presence of the AIDS virus, hepatitis, or the West Nile virus. The FDA thus wishes to protect people in a particularly fragile state of health, but also pregnant women receiving a blood transfusion, whose fetus could be infected and develop microcephaly.
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