HEALTH & SCIENCE

FDA safeguards blood supply from SARS

Though it's still unclear whether the disease is transmissible by blood, experts say donor protocols are appropriate.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. June 2/9, 2003.

The Food and Drug Administration is recommending that people suspected of carrying the coronavirus --the believed cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome -- be deferred from donating blood.

Those who actually have SARS should not donate for a month, and those who may have been exposed should not give for two weeks, according to an FDA guidance issued in April. The agency also asked donors to contact the blood bank if they develop SARS after giving blood.

U.S. blood industry response to the guidelines has been mixed. Experts said the move was appropriate despite the fact that there is little evidence that SARS is transmissible via blood and the infection remains a small threat in the United States. But, more importantly, it is unknown whether there is a period during which a person may be infectious but asymptomatic and, therefore, would not be screened out by the first question asked prospective donors: Are you well today?

"It's prudent until we know more," said Louis Katz, MD, immediate past chair of the transfusion-transmitted diseases committee for the American Assn. of Blood Banks and the president of America's Blood Centers.

Still, the industry appears to be experiencing a collective weariness as a result of the growing list of infectious disease deferrals. Last year, deferrals for Creutzfeldt-Jakob were expanded. West Nile virus shifted from a theoretical to a real possibility of transmission through donor blood. And the vaccination of first responders against smallpox also added issues that must now be considered.

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