Unintended Consequence: Blood Banks Could Feel The Squeeze From Zika Advisories

(By Shefali Luthra for Kaiser Health News)

Enhancing mosquito control. Encouraging safe sex. Advising people to minimize travel to infected areas.

As public health officials hustle to implement strategies like these to undermine the threat of the Zika virus, one such tactic could exacerbate a different health concern: maintaining the nation’s supply of donated blood.

The Food and Drug Administration is encouraging blood banks — which already often struggle to meet demand — to turn away potential donors who might be at risk. Specifically, people who have traveled to a country where the disease is being spread, or had sex with someone else who did, should not donate for four weeks. The protocol is being followed by clinics across the country. Read article here…..

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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