WASHINGTON Dec. 31 —
Recipients of the smallpox vaccine should not donate blood for at
least three weeks after getting the shot, the government is warning,
because that vaccine contains a live virus that might enter the blood
supply and endanger other people.
The Food and Drug Administration's blood guidelines come as the
government has begun inoculations expected to eventually reach millions
of military personnel and health workers. Those two populations also
make up the most faithful blood donors.
Included in the FDA's recommendations, which blood banks are supposed
to implement immediately:
Recipients of smallpox vaccine should not be allowed to give blood
for 21 days after vaccination or until the scab at the injection site
has fallen off on its own, whichever is later. Anyone who has scratched
off the scab should not give blood for two months after vaccination.
Vaccine recipients who suffer side effects from the vaccination
should not give blood until 14 days after all those complications have
disappeared.
Blood banks should ask all potential donors if they suffered any skin
lesions or other complications from close contact with a smallpox
vaccine recipient. Those whose lesions healed on its own can give blood,
but anyone who scratched off a scab cannot donate for three months after
contact with the vaccine recipient.
Donated blood later found to have been given wrongly by a vaccine
recipient or contact must be destroyed or used for non-human research.
If it already has been transfused, blood banks may need to alert the
patient and his or her doctor.
On the Net:
FDA recommendations:
Copyright 2002 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
|
World News Tonight
PRINT THIS PAGE
