West Nile Virus Risk Sparks Blood Shortage; Military Seeks to Refill Inventory
By Spc. Chuck Wagner, USA
Special to the American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Jan. 13, 2003 -- The Armed Services Blood Program Office has asked the
military to withdraw all frozen blood supplies donated during last summer's West Nile
virus epidemic to avoid transmitting the potentially fatal disease to recipients.
Meanwhile, blood collection centers and blood plasma manufacturers are scurrying to
replace military stockpiles as a potential war looms in Iraq.
"There is some additional urgency" about the need to replenish supplies under the
prospect of war, said Col. G. Michael Fitzpatrick, blood program office director.
The armed services have already replaced at-risk blood supplies within the European and
Central commands, which would be front-line in a conflict with Iraq.
The withdrawal went into effect Dec. 13, after a statement by the American Association of
Blood Banks. The American Red Cross, America's Blood Centers and the Armed Services Blood
Program Office coordinated the withdrawal, which includes the Defense Department and
civilian blood banks nationwide.
The ultimate goal is to replace all the frozen blood withdrawn from the current
inventory. "The withdrawal is focused on frozen products (particularly plasma products)
that were collected in states experiencing mosquito-borne transmission of West Nile virus
to humans in 2002," according to a blood program office press release.
The release said the services will accelerate the production of frozen plasma products to
replace withdrawn stocks and begin stockpiling frozen plasma for the summer.
Most of the liquid red blood cells collected during the height of the West Nile virus
epidemic have already been transfused," the release said.
The blood program office estimates it will take until mid-March to replace the entire
inventory. Blood banks were asked to quarantine, but not destroy, at-risk blood products.
Meanwhile, blood banks are prioritizing their supply by sending out the safest stocks
first.
The Defense Department's supply of frozen red blood cells stored for contingency
operations will not be affected by the withdrawal, Fitzpatrick said, because these units
were not collected during the 2002 West Nile epidemic. This includes blood stored on Navy
ships.
The services have three major repositories for contingency blood supplies -- one in
Italy, two in Korea. Frozen blood plasma stored in these banks was donated in the late
1980s to early 1990s, prior to the first West Nile virus outbreak in New York during the
summer of 1999.
Doctors identified 13 transfusion recipients who acquired West Nile through blood
collected from eight donors last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. The eight donors resided in states where doctors documented mosquito-borne
West Nile infections to humans. Since Dec. 3, 2002, doctors have reported 3,775 human
cases of the virus, with 216 deaths. Only three deaths were related to blood
transfusions.
Military and civilian blood collection organizations have asked donors to help fill the
sudden dip in supply. Fitzpatrick said donors with Type AB blood are especially welcome,
because AB is the universal blood plasma type. There are 21 defense collection sites.
No Food and Drug Administration-licensed test yet exists to detect the presence of West
Nile in blood. The Armed Services Blood Program Office has issued donor screening and
deferral guidelines to military collection sites to help identify donors who may have
West Nile symptoms. This measure is intended to decrease the risk of infecting recipients
in the event a test is not available by summer 2003.
(Spc. Chuck Wagner is a staff writer on the Pentagram, the newspaper of the Military
District of Washington.)
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