Clinlab Navigator

Florida Blood Center Begins Testing Donors for Zika Virus

The Florida Department of Health has concluded that four individuals were locally infected with Zika virus by mosquito bites. These are the first confirmed cases of mosquito-borne Zika transmission in the continental United States. The four cases occurred in the adjacent Miami-Dade and Broward counties. More specifically, health officials suspect that transmission occurred in a one square mile area located north of downtown Miami.

On July 28, the Food and Drug administration (FDA) recommended that blood centers in this region suspend local blood collections. Last week, OneBlood, the region’s largest blood supplier, temporarily suspended collections in Miam-Dade and Broward counties. It then rapidly began testing all blood collected from Florida, Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina for Zika virus using an investigational donor screening test.

Although there is no FDA-licensed test for Zika virus, two investigational tests, manufactured by Roche Molecular Systems and Hologic Inc., are available to test blood collected in Puerto Rico and mainland United States.

If a unit of blood is reactive for Zika virus, OneBlood will quarantine the unit, notify the donor and alert the Florida Department of Health, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control.

https://www.oneblood.org/zika/

http://www.cdc.gov/zika/transmission/blood-transfusion.html

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm493081.htm

AddThis Social Bookmark Button