FDA advises Florida blood banks to cease blood collection

Editor's Note

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on July 27 requested that all blood establishments in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties cease collecting blood immediately until they implement testing of each unit of blood with an investigational donor screening test for Zika virus RNA or the use of an approved or investigational pathogen inactivation technology.

The FDA also recommends that adjacent and nearby counties implement the same precautions as soon as possible to help maintain the safety of the blood supply. For blood collection establishments outside this region, the FDA suggests that donors who have traveled to Miami-Dade and Broward Counties during the previous 4 weeks be deferred.

The Office of the Florida Department of Health State Surgeon General is conducting an epidemiological investigation into a number of non-travel related cases of Zika virus in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties that may be the first cases of local Zika virus transmission by mosquitoes in the US.

July 27, 2016 The Office of the ‎Florida Department of Health State Surgeon General has announced that it is conducting an epidemiological investigation into a number of non-travel related cases of Zika virus in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties. These may be the first cases of local Zika virus transmission by mosquitoes in the continental United States.