West Nile virus test on its way

ATLANTA -- Gearing up for another season of West Nile virus, federal officials said Monday that two screening tests to protect the country's blood supply from the disease should be available in a few months.

Development of a blood screening test began after health officials discovered last year that some people became infected with the virus from blood transfusions. Most people catch the disease from mosquitoes.

Still in the testing phase, the two new screening measures will be tried out on blood donations in areas that had high numbers of cases last year, said Dr. Jesse Goodman of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "We think that should really significantly enhance blood safety."

Last year, about 13 people caught West Nile virus from donated blood out of more than 3,800 cases of the disease. In December, blood banks quarantined all plasma frozen during the West Nile spread -- an estimated 30,000 pints -- to reduce further the low risk of spreading the disease through blood products.

Goodman said the FDA will monitor the accuracy of the new tests before they are made more widely available.

Last year, some health experts were skeptical that an accurate blood test would be practical for the millions of people who donate blood. Others said it would take years to develop such a test.

Creating the tests, the work of federal agency collaboration with diagnostic and blood industries, has "been so far a fairly remarkable success story," Goodman said.

Federal officials said this year's West Nile season is under way, with 13 states reporting virus-infected birds and five states reporting horse infections. Two other states have found mosquito pools with the virus. No human cases have been yet reported.

During last year's record-setting epidemic, more than 4,000 people became ill and 274 died.

There is no treatment for the virus, whose symptoms can include headache, swollen lymph nodes and a rash, or, according to one recent study, vision loss, muscle tremors and numbness.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials recommend that people wear long-sleeved clothing, use insect repellent and control pools of standing water.

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