- GAITHERSBURG, Md. (Reuters)
- Blood banks and hospitals have been urged to withdraw frozen blood products
collected during this year's West Nile outbreak to avoid spreading the
virus through transfusions, officials said on Thursday.
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- The recommendation from blood collection groups applies
to blood banks and hospitals in the states where human cases of the sometimes
fatal virus were recorded, and to products collected during the time of
each state's outbreak.
-
- The West Nile virus, which spread across the country
over the summer, is transmitted to people by bites from infected mosquitoes.
The vast majority of people infected do not develop any symptoms, but the
virus can make people sick and sometimes kill.
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- U.S. officials have identified 13 cases in which people
acquired the virus by receiving blood donated from an infected person.
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- Blood plasma products, used to control bleeding in patients
with clotting problems, can remain frozen for up to a year, so some units
collected during the West Nile outbreak this past summer still are on blood
bank or hospital shelves, said Kay Gregory, director of regulatory affairs
for the American Association of Blood Banks.
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- "We think there's a relatively low risk, but we
also think the public would expect us to react and do something,"
Gregory said.
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- Red blood cells are the portion of blood used most often
for transfusion. Most red cells collected during the West Nile outbreak
likely are no longer awaiting transfusion because they can be refrigerated
for a maximum of 42 days and most are not frozen, Gregory said.
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- Most blood banks and hospitals are expected to follow
the new advice, which urges that frozen products from the outbreak period
be quarantined, with the goal of replacing them with new supplies, Gregory
said. But the quarantined products could be used if no fresh products were
available.
-
- Hospitals are urged not to transfuse blood products collected
during a West Nile outbreak for patients at higher risk of getting ill
from the virus, such as people with weak immune systems, people older than
65 and pregnant women.
-
- Officials do not yet know how many frozen blood products
currently on shelves were donated during the West Nile outbreak, said Dr.
Celso Bianco, executive vice president of America's Blood Centers, which
collects about half of the U.S. blood supply.
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- The Food and Drug Administration said it supported the
effort.
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- "Although the risk from an individual unit of blood
or plasma collected and frozen during the epidemic is likely to be low,
FDA believes that the voluntary withdrawal of certain frozen products is
a rational response to the risk at this time," an FDA statement said.
-
- Manufacturers are working to develop a test to detect
the West Nile virus in donated blood, and blood banks are hoping a test
will be available by next year's mosquito season.
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