GRAND CHUTE, WI (WTAQ) – Wisconsin’s blood centers, as well as centers across the country, are scrambling. In three months, they’ll need to start testing donations for the Zika Virus.
The FDA announced the change last week.
Right now, at the Community Blood Center in Grand Chute, donors are asked if they’ve visited South or Central America, or Florida recently. If they have, their donation is delayed in case of exposure to Zika virus.
However in three months, that screening process won’t be enough. The blood itself will need to be tested for Zika.
Dr. Todd Straus is the Chief Medical Officer for the Community Blood Center.
“Tests for the presence of the virus in the blood by what’s called a PCR reaction, preliminary exchange reaction, looks for RNA or DNA of the virus”
The test comes with complications. For one, the only test available is still in the research phase.
“So, technically, we will having to join a research study to implement this testing. It involves a little bit extra time with our donors. We’ll have to ask them if it’s okay to test their blood for Zika, they’ll have to sign a special release, which will probably be a separate piece of paper we’ll have to have them sign”
Staruss says another concern about testing for the Zika virus is the cost of the test for blood centers.
“An added cost for us, the hospitals that we serve and, ultimately, the patients that receive blood transfusions”
Straus said the FDA’s decision to make the Zika test mandatory across the county came as a surprise.
“The exact benefit of the testing, we’re not quite sure what it is yet, versus what we currently do”
However, Straus is quick to agree its important to stop Zika from entering the blood supply.
“We fully think that we need to make sure that we keep Zika out of the blood supply. We also need to make sure we’re doing it in the correct way”
When announcing its decision last week, the FDA said the nationwide testing was necessary because of how fast the virus is spreading. It spread from South America to Miami in about a year. Infected mosquitoes have been found as far north as Kentucky.
