West Nile

Visitors to Canada should be aware of the need to cover up when close to areas with mosquitos. There is growing evidence that suggests that West Nile virus is growing in threat. Councillor Phil Bateman said" Visitors to Canada should be aware of the threats posed to health by mosquito bites in Canada and the Eastern part of the USA. Cover up and take notice of the local medical advice, enjoy your holiday but do what you can to deter being bitten."

West Nile triggers blood recall
Saskatchewan donations destroyed

Provinces are testing for the virus


TIM COOK
CANADIAN PRESS

REGINA—The agency responsible for managing Canada's blood supply is recalling all blood collected in Saskatchewan last month, citing a West Nile "epidemic" in the province.

Canadian Blood Services said the move is a precautionary bid to protect the country's blood supply from the virus, which can be passed from human to human through blood transfusions.

"This is an epidemic and it is hard to predict when it is going to hit and how bad it is going to be," said Dr. Ted Alport of Canadian Blood Services in Saskatchewan.

"When you are dealing with epidemics, the planning process has to be reactive and managed depending on what transpires during the epidemic."

Hospitals across the country were asked yesterday to isolate and destroy red-cell and platelet products derived from blood collected in Saskatchewan from Aug. 4 to 31.

But the plasma will be saved and put through a process that removes the virus, Alport said.

Officials estimate that the recall involves 3,000 to 4,000 units of blood.

Canadian Blood Services is still encouraging donations in Saskatchewan, but they will now be tested individually to ensure they are free of the virus.

In other provinces, samples of each donation are pooled into a group of six and then tested for the virus.

Alport pointed out that there is no concrete proof that individual testing is more effective at detecting West Nile, but the agency felt it should take this extra step because it could.

The agency does not have the resources to do individual testing on every donation it receives countrywide, he said.

"We are comfortable with this current test and we believe it is working well," Alport said.

"So those patients that have received product in the last couple of months, I don't think, have to take any additional steps or have reason to be concerned.

"What we are doing here is just a very marginal, theoretical level of safety."

The recalled blood will be replaced with either frozen blood products collected before West Nile virus season or blood collected from elsewhere in the country.

"We're satisfied that the blood will be available for surgeries or emergencies as needed over the coming days," said Saskatchewan Health Minister John Nilson.

"Blood is available to people who need it. It will come from neighbours right across Canada in the short term."

Saskatchewan now has 97 probable and confirmed cases of West Nile virus in humans this year, with another 33 still being investigated.

Across Canada, human cases of West Nile have been detected in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta.

But Saskatchewan has been hardest hit, reporting more than half of Canada's 159 confirmed or probable cases.

The numbers are also climbing in Alberta, where 47 people are now thought to have the mosquito-borne virus.

Yesterday, Saskatchewan stood behind its mosquito control strategy despite the fact that it put significantly less money toward stopping the virus than Manitoba did last spring.

Manitoba set aside $5.8 million for West Nile prevention while Saskatchewan — a province of roughly the same size — allocated only $1.2 million.

Manitoba has had only six cases of the virus this summer.

Premier Lorne Calvert said that mosquito numbers have been low in Saskatchewan, making the rash of cases so difficult to understand.

"If more money would guarantee that there would be no West Nile, then I don't think it would be an issue of the money," Calvert said. "We seem to be part of a geographic pattern."

Dr. Eric Young, the province's deputy medical officer of health agreed, saying he doesn't think Saskatchewan was caught off-guard by the disease.

Canadian Blood Services instituted Canada-wide screening of all donated blood at the beginning of the summer.

There were 416 probable or confirmed cases last year with 21 deaths — 19 in Ontario and two in Quebec.

There have been no reported West Nile deaths this year.