- ATLANTA (Reuters) - Four
people who recently received blood transfusions have tested positive for
the potentially fatal mosquito-borne West Nile virus, U.S. health officials
reported on Thursday.
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- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
the Food and Drug Administration said the blood products given to the victims
had been withdrawn as a precaution, though they stressed that there was
no evidence linking the West Nile infections to the nation's blood supply.
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- Dr. Lyle Petersen, a West Nile expert with the CDC, said
the two federal agencies were cooperating with the American Red Cross and
state and local health departments to follow up and test those who had
donated blood to the four patients.
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- There have been 1,201 human cases of West Nile in the
United States this summer, including 46 deaths. The outbreak is the largest
since West Nile, which is common in Africa and the Middle East, surfaced
in the Americas three years ago.
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- "By chance alone, some of these persons will have
received blood transfusions," said Petersen, who noted that all four
of the cases involving blood transfusions had occurred in areas where the
mosquitoes that spread West Nile virus were active.
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- "Recent receipt of a blood transfusion by a person
with West Nile virus infection does not necessarily implicate the transfusion
as the source of infection," Petersen said.
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- Fears that West Nile, which can cause encephalitis, a
severe brain inflammation, could be transmitted through blood surfaced
earlier this month after four organ recipients were infected from a single
donor in Georgia.
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- Tens of thousands of Americans may have been exposed
to the virus since it first appeared in the United States in 1999, when
it killed seven people in the New York borough of Queens.
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-
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- Although most people bitten by a West Nile-carrying mosquito
have no symptoms and those who do normally suffer little more than flu-like
illness, they can still carry the virus in their blood for days or even
weeks.
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- Although health officials concede that they do not currently
have the capability to test the nation's blood supplies for the virus,
they said the potential risk of contracting West Nile from blood was likely
very small.
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- "For the overwhelming majority of people, even if
West Nile is a problem the blood that they get is extremely safe and offers
no problem," said Dr. Jesse Goodman, deputy director of the FDA's
Center for Biologics, Evaluation and Research.
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- Goodman, however, said excluding some donors from giving
blood might be among the options considered if West Nile became a threat
to the blood supply.
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- While federal agencies grapple with the issue of blood
transmission of West Nile, state and local health officials continue to
battle the virus as it approaches its seasonal peak in mid-September.
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- Although initially centered in the Southern states of
Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, this year's outbreak has moved into the
Midwest with a vengeance. States such as Illinois and Michigan have been
particularly hard hit.
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- Illinois has reported 292 human cases of West Nile, the
most in the nation, according to the CDC.
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- At least 42 states, stretching from Maine to California,
and the District of Columbia have reported some West Nile activity this
year. The virus, which is spread largely through bird migrations, has also
been detected in parts of Canada.
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- Mosquitoes contract West Nile from infected birds and
then spread it to humans. The virus cannot be spread from person to person
or from birds to humans.
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