Back to the West Nile Virus listserv archive.

Date: July 25, 2003
Posted by: Environmental Risk Analysis Program <envrisk@cornell.edu>

See also WestNileVirus-L postings July 6 and July 21 on this topic. 
These postings are excerpted from ProMED mail (Id# 20030724.1807):

[1]
FLORIDA BLOOD BANK DETECTS WNV IN DONOR
Source: Florida Times Union online, Wed 23 Jul 2003 [edited]
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/apnews/stories/072303/D7SF44EG1.html

Florida's largest blood bank has detected West Nile virus in a unit 
of donated blood. The Central Florida Blood Bank announced its 
finding on Tue 22 Jul 2003, underscoring the need to check donated 
blood for the virus
that can cause potentially dangerous brain infections. The blood bank 
started testing for West Nile virus on 30 Jun 2003.

The donation was traced to a 36-year-old man from Rockledge in 
Brevard County who does not have any symptoms of a West Nile virus 
infection, said Mike Pratt, executive vice president of technical 
services for the blood bank. "We're just thrilled with this," Pratt 
said. "I think we got (the testing) started just under the wire, just 
in time for West Nile season." The Brevard County Health Department 
will investigate the findings to
determine if anything must be done in the donor's area, officials said.

A new blood screening system developed by Roche Diagnostics was 
adopted by the Central Florida Blood Bank as part of a clinical trial 
to weed out infected blood donors who risk transmitting the 
encephalitis-related
disease to transfusion patients. The Central Florida Blood Bank has 
29 locations covering 17 counties. It provides more than 250 000 
pints of blood each year and is the fourth largest independent blood 
bank in the country.

No human cases of West Nile have been diagnosed in Florida in 2003, 
but 2 children have contracted another mosquito-borne infection — 
Eastern equine encephalitis.


[2]
COLORADO—9 SUSPECTED WNV-POSITIVE BLOOD DONORS
Source: Rocky Mountain News, Sat  19 Jul 2003, byline Bill Scanlon [edited]

5 more blood donors have tested positive for West Nile virus, 
bringing to 9 the number who will be re-tested to see whether they 
are false positives, the Bonfils Blood Center reported on Fri 18 Jul 
2003. WNV killed 284 Americans in 2002; in Colorado, 14 people who 
got sick tested  positive for the virus, but none died.

Bonfils and 21 other blood centers nationwide began testing donors 
for West Nile on 1 Jul 2003, so to have so many positives in Colorado 
already is unsettling, officials said. That's why Bonfils and the 
Colorado Department
of Public Health and Environment both are anxious to retest the 9 
donors who have tested positive to see whether they truly have West 
Nile virus infection. Epidemiologists with the state health 
department are skeptical, but aren't ruling out that the findings are 
real.

Bonfils has sent blood samples to the labs with which it works and 
also to the state health department. The original test looks for RNA 
from the virus itself, but follow-up tests also could include 
checking to see whether the donor has developed antibodies to the 
virus. Results should be known within 2 weeks.

The state health department has no reports of ill Coloradans who've 
tested positive for West Nile this year. The West Nile season is 
expected to peak in August and September. In 2002, the Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention reported a handful of West Nile cases 
that likely came from patients receiving blood from donors with the 
virus. Jessica Maitland, a spokeswoman for Bonfils, said the first 
positives in Colorado didn't come
until the second week of testing in July, which gives officials some 
assurance that infected blood didn't get into the nation's blood 
supply in late June before testing began. Every unit of blood that 
tested positive was quarantined, Maitland said, "ensuring that the 
blood supply is safer than ever."

Also this week, 6 more horses have tested positive for WNV,  bringing 
the total to 10 in Colorado's second summer of dealing with the 
virus. The 10 horses include one each from Adams, Fremont, Larimer, 
Crowley, and Yuma counties and 5 from Weld County.

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