A change in testing will enable people who want to donate blood at the Community Blood Center to do so without waiting.
Last Friday the Center began testing all blood donations for the Zika virus. Community Blood Center spokesperson Kristine Belanger says blood donors no longer have a waiting period to donate...
".....they no longer have to wait before they can donate blood. In March we implemented a waiting period of 28 days if people had been in an area with active Zika transmission. That period has been eliminated...."
Belanger says rather than make donors wait nearly a month, they can give blood now, as it will be tested for Zika after the donation...
"...in August, the Food and Drug Administration issued revised guidelines requiring Zika testing on all donated blood products. We're certainly thrilled that donors who have been waiting because they've been in an area with Zika can come back and donate...."
Belanger says there has been no locally-acquired cases of Zika and 49 travel-associated cases, where donors traveled to an area where the virus was active. Belanger says they won't be asking about Zika on their pre-donation questionnaire, since they can test for it.
The Community Blood Center supplies hospitals in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula, with an office in Woodruff.
