--- title: Zika: Red Cross Says Wait to Donate Blood After Travel description: The precaution will be in place even though risk of infection is low canonical: https://time.com/4206402/zika-virus-red-cross-blood-donations/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-03T18:17:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:41:30.065Z article:section: Health og:title: Red Cross Asks Americans Who Visit Zika Areas to Wait to Donate Blood og:description: The precaution will be in place even though risk of infection is low og:url: https://time.com/4206402/zika-virus-red-cross-blood-donations/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cf51118f7587af8/69887bff196cf4cbf603a2bc/mosquito2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4272 og:image:height: 2403 og:image:alt: 139289970 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Red Cross Asks Americans Who Visit Zika Areas to Wait to Donate Blood twitter:description: The precaution will be in place even though risk of infection is low twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cf51118f7587af8/69887bff196cf4cbf603a2bc/mosquito2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Red Cross Asks Americans Who Visit Zika Areas to Wait 28 Days to Donate Blood > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=ca68b3e6-7213-4071-87ea-6d5ec7dcec7d&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: CDC Confirms Link Between Zika Virus And Birth Defects [Watch (HLS stream): CDC Confirms Link Between Zika Virus And Birth Defects](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nYBEKNnO.m3u8) (1:03)  _Published 2016-01-18. Zika can infect embryonic cells that help form the brain, a lab study found_ by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Feb 3, 2016 6:17 PM UTC by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Feb 3, 2016 6:17 PM UTC The American Red Cross has asked blood donors to wait [28 days](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-zika-redcross-idUSKCN0VC035) after returning from regions affected by Zika before donating. Though the organization called the risk of transmission extremely low, the group urged caution on those who have recently visited Central and South America, the Caribbean and Mexico, Reuters reports. If donors do give blood and subsequently show symptoms of the mosquito-borne virus, the Red Cross asks to be notified in order to quarantine possibly affected donations. The World Health Organization declared the birth defects linked to Zika an [international public health emergency](http://time.com/4202499/who-zika-public-health-emergency/) on Monday after reports of the virus spreading throughout the Americas, corresponding with a spike in the birth defect microcephaly, which causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads. \[[_Reuters_](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-zika-redcross-idUSKCN0VC035)\] ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4206402/zika-virus-red-cross-blood-donations/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4206402/zika-virus-red-cross-blood-donations/"},"headline":"Red Cross Asks Americans Who Visit Zika Areas to Wait 28 Days to Donate Blood","datePublished":"2016-02-03T18:17:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:41:30.065Z","description":"The precaution will be in place even though risk of infection is low","url":"https://time.com/4206402/zika-virus-red-cross-blood-donations/","keywords":["Zika"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cf51118f7587af8/69887bff196cf4cbf603a2bc/mosquito2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cf51118f7587af8/69887bff196cf4cbf603a2bc/mosquito2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"139289970","caption":"mosquito","creditText":"Joao Paulo Burini—Flickr RF/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/zika/","name":"Zika"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4206402/zika-virus-red-cross-blood-donations/","name":"Red Cross Asks Americans Who Visit Zika Areas to Wait 28 Days to Donate Blood"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"CDC Confirms Link Between Zika Virus And Birth Defects","description":"Zika can infect embryonic cells that help form the brain, a lab study found","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/nYBEKNnO/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-01-18T15:12:06.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nYBEKNnO.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4206402/zika-virus-red-cross-blood-donations/","duration":"PT1M3S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4206402/zika-virus-red-cross-blood-donations/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```