Blood Safety

Study questions recent policy on screening of U.S. blood donations for WNV

Published in AIDS Weekly, February 13th, 2006

A recent mandate to screen blood donations in the United States for West Nile virus (WNV) makes little sense from a public health point of view, say researchers from Columbia University and Harvard School of Public Health.

WNV can be detected in blood samples by recently developed and approved tests. These tests detect some, but not all, cases of contamination with the virus. This means that WNV infections that could result from contaminated blood products are potentially avoidable by screening donated blood. However, the majority of WNV infections are asymptomatic, so screening may have a small impact on clinical outcomes.

The U.S. Food & Drug...

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Source: AIDS Weekly (2006-02-13)

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