Has anyone heard about this? A friend told me about it this morning and I googled it and found articles like this:
Deadly parasite threat to blood supply
LOS ANGELES, March 15 (UPI) -- Federal health officials may soon recommend that all donated blood be screened for a deadly Latin American parasite that is threatening the U.S. blood supply.
Some blood-collection agencies are already screening for the parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, which carries the disease Chagas and has become increasingly prevalent in the blood supply, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The parasite can be contracted through a blood-sucking insect found in Latin America, and potential donors could have traveled to the region, the newspaper reported.
The Centers for Disease Control said in February that the "FDA is expected to recommend implementation of the test (for the parasite) by all blood-collection establishments."
Two Los Angeles heart transplant recipients contracted Chagas last year and died, although not from Chagas, the Times reported.
In 1996, one in 9,850 Los Angeles blood donors tested positive for the parasite, while two years later the number had increased to one in 5,400 donors, the Times said. A more refined test found that one in 3,800 donors tested positive in 2006. In contrast, HIV is found in one in every 30,000 blood donors, the newspaper reported.
Copyright Political Gateway 2006© Copyright United Press International 2006 22