Puerto Rico will start buying blood from the Red Cross, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced new guidelines this week restricting the collection of locally donated blood in territories that are experiencing active transmission of the Zika virus.
By the new FDA guidelines, health officials have two weeks to start importing the island's blood supply from the continental United States. Local health officials have expressed concern, however, that switching to imported blood could negatively impact Puerto Rico's network of voluntary donations, which services most of its needs. Additionally, the cost of importing blood will be around $100,000 per week, Reuters reports.
The added strain that the spread of the virus could add to Puerto Rico's already struggling economy is of increasing concern to the federal government, considering the island's weakened health care system and limited federal Medicaid funding, explains the Wall Street Journal. Health officials in Puerto Rico warn that the island's eight blood banks cannot afford to both buy blood and make payroll, and are asking for government support in order to pay for the imports until local blood collection can resume.
"Laying off people, even for a short time, would be devastating," said Jose O. Alsina, vice president and chief operating officer of Banco de Sangre de Servicios Mutuos, Puerto Rico's largest blood bank, according to Reuters.
In response, the FDA has said that it is "actively engaged in conversations with local health authorities and blood collection establishments in Puerto Rico in order to minimize the impact to the greatest extent possible," said spokeswoman Tara Goodin.
President Obama has asked Congress for $1.8 billion in emergency funding to combat the Zika virus at home and abroad, mainly due to the potential link to microcephaly - a condition causing babies to be born with abnormally small heads and developmental delays. Obama's request includes $250 million for the Medicaid program in Puerto Rico, in order to support Zika-diagnosed pregnant women or those who are at risk of infection, according to The Washington Times.
There have been 30 confirmed cases of Zika reported in Puerto Rico so far, but health officials expect thousands of residents to be infected once the mosquito season peaks this summer. Puerto Rico is the only part of the U.S. where Zika has spread locally, rather than being transferred through travelers from Brazil or elsewhere in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Puerto Rico is already facing about $70 billion in debt, alongside a 45 percent poverty rate. The U.S. territory has defaulted on some debt payments, and Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla has also advised that the government is close to running out of capital, as the BBC has outlined.
