Fearing Zika, FDA Asks 2 Florida Counties To Halt Blood Donations

[Eugene]

Source: NPR

Fearing Zika, FDA Asks 2 Florida Counties To Halt Blood Donations

July 28, 20164:18 PM ET
RAE ELLEN BICHELL

There's been a looming fear that mosquitoes would start spreading the Zika virus in the U.S. Now that possibility seems increasingly real.

On Thursday, senior officials at the Food and Drug Administration said they have asked blood donation centers in two Florida counties, Miami-Dade and Broward, to stop collecting blood for the time being.

The move came after investigators ruled out travel as the cause of four cases of Zika virus in those counties. Florida health officials announced the cases last week. The people hadn't traveled to places where Zika is endemic and don't appear to have contracted it through sex, leaving a possibility that they got the virus from being bitten by infected mosquitoes in the U.S.

If they did acquire the virus from domestic mosquitoes, it could mean that others in the area also may have acquired Zika virus locally, and may have donated blood without knowing it was infected.

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Read more: http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/07/28/487802572/fearing-zika-fda-asks-2-florida-counties-to-halt-blood-donations

[Warpy]

1. There are now 6 more cases

and it seems certain it's already in Florida. It will spread north and west along the Gulf coast.

The real problem with this diabolical little monster of a virus is that 80% of people who get it don't know they have it and can infect other people through blood and body fluids.

I hope it follows the Zika Valley model, becoming a childhood illness that confers lifetime immunity.