Federal regulators approved the use of an experimental test to determine if blood donors have the Zika virus, a few days after Congress probed the Obama administration over the lack of Zika diagnostics.
The Food and Drug Administration approved an investigational test that screens blood donations for the Zika virus, a move regulators say can help ensure blood supplies aren’t affected by the outbreak that has spread to more than 50 countries and territories.
Zika is primarily spread by mosquito bites and can cause a mild illness. However, health agencies are worried that the virus may cause birth defects and a rare neurological disorder.
The availability of the blood test can be used in areas where Zika is spreading via mosquito bites, the FDA said.
“In the future, should Zika virus transmission occur in other areas, blood collection establishments will be able to continue to collect blood and use the investigational screening test, minimizing disruption to the blood supply,” said Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
So far the Zika virus isn’t spreading in the U.S. via mosquitoes, although there are is a very small amount of sexual transmission of the virus. However, with the summer approaching federal agencies are increasingly worried about a mosquito-borne outbreak in the country.
The move comes a few days after members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee called the state of Zika diagnostics “alarming” in a letter to the Obama administration.
The lawmakers who wrote the letter asked how the administration is working with private companies to spur the development of diagnostics on Zika.
