Screening the United States Blood Supply for West Nile Virus: A Question of Blood, Dollars, and Sense

February 2006 | Volume 3 | Issue 2 | e99 Now that the media frenzy over West Nile virus (WNV) has subsided, and pictures of dead birds and insect repellant cans no longer permeate the nightly news, what shall we do about screening the United States blood supply for the virus? Shortly after the spread of WNV in North America and the revelation that blood transfusions may transmit the virus [1], US offi cials established regulations requiring blood banks to screen all their donated blood for WNV using nucleic acid amplifi cation tests. Although these requirements have been in place since June 2003, there has been debate over if and how to continue the screening [2,3]. The threat of disease certainly still exists, but with limited resources and other potential hazards to blood supply safety, there has been a real need for good, objective economic studies to determine what type and what degree of screening should be performed.