Zika blood screening policy not cost-effective

During the Zika outbreak in Latin America, U.S. health regulators decided to screen donated blood for the mosquito-borne virus. But according to a new study, the policy was not cost-effective. Moreover, the researchers ran a simulation and found that such a policy would only be cost-effective during mosquito season in Puerto Rico and never in U.S. states. The simulation found that screening would only prevent one case of congenital Zika syndrome (the defects in children who are infected during gestation) every 33 years in Puerto Rico — and one case every 176 years in the 50 states. The FDA has eased back on screening rules — allowing pools of blood to be sampled instead of individual donations — but the researchers say the policy still isn't cost-effective.