Dengue threat to blood stock

Margo Zlotkowski

Friday, December 5, 2008

A DENGUE fever outbreak in Cairns is set to put a big hole in our pre-Christmas blood stockpile because donations are too risky to accept.

As the number of confirmed cases of the disease grew from two to six yesterday, with eight people waiting test results, the Esplanade-based Blood Bank has been forced to suspend whole blood collections for at least three months.

"We’re right in the middle of the dengue hot-spot," the Australian Red Cross Blood Service’s Cairns manager Zenon Stecewicz said.

"Anyone who comes here has to go through the affected area and immediately becomes a contamination risk."

Mr Stecewicz urged donors to keep up their support by giving blood plasma, the liquid component of whole blood.

The first two dengue cases were residents of Manoora and Portsmith.

The affected area now stretches from North Cairns, where the blood bank is based, and the CBD through Parramatta Park, Manunda, Manoora, Westcourt and Edge Hill.

Mr Stecewicz said the outbreak could not have come at a worse time, with interest from donors at a peak after The Cairns Post’s blood drive during November lifted donations by 75 per cent.

Anybody who has not visited any of the affected Cairns suburbs since December 1 can still give whole blood at Mareeba and Innisfail, where extra sessions have been scheduled. Sessions will be held at Innisfail on December 10, 18 and 30 and Mareeba on December 17 and 22.

Plasma is OK to give: Blood Bank’s Maryanne Bray with a bag of whole blood (right) and plasma (left).

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