(Sioux City)– A blood collection service that serves 28 local hospitals, including Lakes Regional Healthcare and Spencer Hospital, continues to do what it can to protect its supply against the West Nile Virus.
Janet Twaitt of the Siouxland Community Blood Bank says they’ve been utilizing a special screening system since June 29th of this year, along with asking additional questions of donors regarding any symptoms they may have that could be attributed to the West Nile Virus. Twaitt says anyone with those symptoms is deferred from donating for 28 days, the incubation period for the virus. She says so far, they’ve found four donors that have tested positive for West Nile. A follow up test was done to make sure the tests were actually positive, which she says they were. Twaitt says blood products from those donors were destroyed before they could get into the distribution network.
Twaitt says the fact they’ve had to temporarily turn away some donors is further impacting an already tight blood supply.
Twaitt says Siouxland Community Blood Bank will continue its West Nile screening program for atleast another month…until the region is completely mosquito-free for another year.
