Today was the first day in which I donated platelets in months, as certain places which I visited during my recent travels kept extending the date of which I was unable to donate products derived from my blood for at least one year — and I read the materials which donors are required to read prior to giving blood, platelets or other products.
What I Learned About the Zika Virus When Donating Platelets Earlier Today
While reading those materials, I learned that if you have visited a part of the world where the Zika virus is considered a problem within four weeks of attempting to donate blood or blood products, you will be discouraged from donating and turned away; and in addition to the growing list of countries mostly located in Central America and South America, Dade County in south Florida — which includes the greater Miami metropolitan area — is also on that list.
You read that correctly: if you have visited Dade County within the past four weeks, you cannot donate blood or anything related to your blood.
Official Statement From the American Red Cross
Included in the official statement released on Monday, August 29, 2016 from the American Red Cross pertaining to the screening of the Zika virus are the following two paragraphs:
Currently, the Red Cross is conducting blood donor screening testing for Zika virus under an investigational study in five southeastern states in the U.S. (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina) that are believed to be at greatest risk of local mosquito transmission of Zika virus in which our collections occur. By September 23, we will expand this testing to five additional states (Arizona, California, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.) The Red Cross does not collect blood in Hawaii, Louisiana or New Mexico. We will continue to work closely with the FDA regarding our timeline for implementing testing in all U.S. states as required by the revised Zika virus guidance.
The Red Cross does not collect blood in South Florida where local cases of Zika virus transmission have been confirmed. All blood donations collected in Florida by the Red Cross (limited to northwestern Florida) are currently tested for Zika virus using the investigational test. Following the advice of the FDA, the Red Cross implemented a donor deferral for those who have traveled to Miami-Dade County during the previous four weeks and will do the same for Palm Beach and other counties that have documented local transmission.
Transmission of Zika Virus by Mosquitos in the United States
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States created an interesting graphic showing that a specific type of mosquito is more likely to spread Zika and other viruses than other types of mosquitoes.
The most effective form of prevention is to proactively protect yourself against mosquito bites — in order to both prevent contracting the Zika virus disease and to prevent its spread if you are already infected — with the following steps:
- Use insect repellent
- Wear clothes — preferably with light colors — which cover as much of your body as possible
- Use physical barriers such as screens, closed doors and windows
- Sleep under mosquito nets
- Empty, clean or cover containers which can hold water — such as buckets, flower pots or tires — so that places where mosquitoes can breed are removed
- Young children, sick people and elderly people are three examples of those who may not be able to protect themselves adequately and could use assistance and special attention
Countries and Territories with Active Zika Virus Transmission
The virus can be expected to spread ever further than it already has, as the mosquitoes which carry it can be found across the following 58 countries and territories with active Zika virus transmission:
- American Samoa
- Anguilla
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Argentina
- Aruba
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belize
- Bolivia
- Bonaire
- Brazil
- British Virgin Islands
- Cape Verde
- Cayman Islands
- Colombia
- Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, territory of the United States
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Curacao
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- Fiji
- French Guiana
- Grenada
- Guadeloupe
- Guatemala
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Jamaica
- Kosrae of the Federated States of Micronesia
- Marshall Islands
- Martinique
- Mexico
- New Caledonia
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Papua New Guinea
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Saba
- Saint Barthélemy
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Martin
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Samoa
- Singapore
- Sint Eustatius
- Sint Maarten
- Suriname
- Tonga
- Trinidad and Tobago
- Turks and Caicos
- United States
- United States Virgin Islands
- Venezuela
Further Information Pertaining to the Zika Virus
For additional details pertaining to the Zika virus — there is absolutely too much information to list in this article — please refer to the official Internet web site of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specifically dedicated to informing as many people as possible about the Zika virus, as it contains plenty of useful and vital details about which you should know; as well as to the two following articles:
- Updated Zika Virus Guidance and Information Issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Zika Virus: What Is It? Should You Be Concerned?
Summary
I personally prefer donating platelets because I can do so every two weeks — up to a maximum of 24 times per year — as several recipients can benefit from one apheresis donation. It may take a couple of hours of my time, but I can choose to listen to music, watch a movie or get some work done — and I get to drink juice and eat cookies afterwards! Yay! How can anyone not want cookies?!?
More importantly — unlike money or material possessions — donating platelets and blood is the purest and most personal way of literally giving of yourself to a person in need. To be able to save the life of someone somewhere who needs it is quite rewarding for me. I truly believe that alone is worth two hours of my time.
If your beliefs are similar, I strongly encourage you to please donate either whole blood or blood components — but before you do, please be sure to read this discussion on FlyerTalk first pertaining to experiencing any side effects to donating blood. I do not suffer from side effects when I donate — but you might, and I would like for you to be safe and healthy if and when you decide to save the life of someone in need.
Sadly — if there was any disadvantage to extensive travel — it is that you might eventually be in a location considered too risky for donating blood or its components. Unfortunately, donating blood and blood products do not always coincide well with each other, as there are certain areas of the world which are considered at risk — and the spread of the Zika virus only complicates that fact.
Wanting to know why I had not donated platelets via apheresis — something which I have done greater than 125 times — in months as she was preparing me for my double donation of platelets earlier today, I let the phlebotomist know that I had been traveling; and some places which I had visited had reset the clock and extended the year in which I would not be allowed to donate.
“Did you travel on business?” she asked as she stuck a needle in each of my arms — almost painlessly, I must add, as that is not easy to do.
“Both business and leisure,” I responded.
“Did you have a good time?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“That is all that matters.”
Amen.
