After the confirmation that Zika is transmitted through sex, Brazilian health officials confirm that Zika virus can be transmitted through blood transfusions.
A gunshot victim got infected with Zika virus after getting multiple blood transfusions from donor infected with Zika vrus in April 2015.
Dr. Marcelo Addas Carvalho, director of the blood center at the University of Campinas, confirmed that they have done genetic testing to reveal that the victim got infected with Zika virus through blood transfusion as the blood donor was infected with Zika virus. The gunshot victim did not develop any symptoms of the infection.
The health department of Campinas had reported earlier that a man with gunshot wounds had possibly got infected with Zika virus after blood transfusion from a man who was already infected with the virus.
Carvalho had stated that it was very unusual for the victim to get the virus through mosquito bite as the patient was in hospital intensive care unit for almost three months. He had anticipated the cause of the infection to be blood transfusion from an infected individual and said that further genetic tests are necessary to prove that.
The gunshot victim later succumbed to the injuries of the gunshot and not the virus.
In an interview to Reuters, Carvalho said, "The two cases can be considered transmission of the virus through blood transfusion, with greater certainty in the first because we did genetic sequencing comparing the virus in the donor and to the virus in the recipient."
The Brazilian health officials have given stringent instructions to blood banks to not to allow people infected with Zika or dengue to donate blood for a month after complete recovery from the active infection stage with the Zika virus.
The American Association Of Blood Banks urged potential donors who have visited Zika outbreak zones to defer their donation for at least 28 days.
This finding can be significant to case light to delve in the Zika virus research and can help to stop spread of Zika virus.
