Crea
Tech Solutions
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2021 News Archives
CDC UPDATES ONLINE YELLOW BOOK MALARIA INFORMATION
December 13, 2021
The CDC has updated malaria information for a number of countries in the online version of the 2020 Yellow Book. Countries with significant changes in malaria-endemic areas include Bangladesh, Brazil, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Iran, Namibia, Panama, Peru, South Africa, Suriname, Thailand, and Timor-Leste (East Timor).
These changes warrant a major update to the Donor Screening GEO Guide at this time. Work on this update has begun and publication is currently projected for January 2022.
This update will also include an expanded Ports of Call List, to cover tourist ports worldwide.
COVID-19
UPDATES
COVID-19 TRAVEL NOTICES AND UPDATES WILL NO LONGER BE POSTED ON THIS PAGE
July 21, 2021
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Because the CDC has been issuing revised COVID-19 Travel Notices on a weekly basis and since COVID-19 updates to the GEO Guide are not currently provided to most GEO Guide users, news regarding these changes will no longer be provided on this page. Users that subscribe to COVID-19 updates will continue to receive notifications of these changes directly by email.
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​Related to this change, most news items for 2021 regarding COVID-19 Travel Notice changes and corresponding updates to the GEO Guide have been deleted from this page to provide greater visibility to news items of greater relevance to the majority of our GEO Guide users.
COVID-19 TRAVEL NOTICE FOR CRUISE SHIP TRAVEL UPDATED
June 16, 2021
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The CDC has revised its COVID-19 Travel Notices for Cruise Ship Travel to Level 3 (High risk).
Here is a link to the CDC's COVID-19 Travel Health Notices webpage.
CDC DECLARES EBOLA OUTBREAKS IN GUINEA AND DR CONGO
February 25, 2021
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The CDC has issued Level 3 (Warning) Travel Notices for Ebola in Guinea and Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The CDC states that the outbreaks are currently limited to N’Zérékoré Prefecture of Guinea and North Kivu (Kivu Nord) province of the DRC.
The FDA’s blood guidance on Ebola, issued in 2017, recommends that donor education and screening specific to Ebola virus should be implemented when the CDC has classified one or more countries as having widespread transmission of Ebola virus. The CDC is not indicating that transmission is widespread at this time. CreaTech Solutions will continue monitoring the CDC’s Ebola information as these outbreaks evolve.
2021 COVID-19 ADD-ON SUBSCRIPTIONS FOR THE GEO GUIDE
February 15, 2021
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To support our users that have elected to implement voluntary travel screening for COVID-19, an optional COVID-19 Add-On subscription may be purchased for the 2021 term. This additional subscription will be required to access the COVID-19 updates to the GEO guide after April 1st and covers the ongoing added costs
of providing the COVID-19 updates.
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COVID-19 update files will continue to be provided through to the CreaTech Solutions ShareFile site to approved users. Hard copy COVID-19 update subscribers are granted permission to download and print COVID-19 update files. Please contact Adrienne for more information or to add-on a COVID-19 subscription for the 2021 term.
2021 UPDATE SUBSCRIPTION PRICING RELEASED
February 15, 2021
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Donor Screening GEO Guide subscription pricing for the 2021 term (from April 1, 2021 through March 31, 2022) has been determined. COVID-19 updates will not be provided with regular 2021 GEO Guide subscriptions. Optional add-on subscriptions for COVID-19 updates will be offered for the 2021 term.
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​Subscription pricing remains the same as for 2020.
GEO Guide subscribers that did not download any COVID-19 updates issued in 2020 will receive a credit toward their 2021 subscription fees.
Update projections for 2020 included consideration of the following factors:
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Possible changes in malaria-endemic areas in 27 countries (with an estimated 15 overlays impacted) based on analysis of the 2020 WHO World Malaria Report.
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Anticipated publication of the 2022 edition of the CDC's Yellow Book in May 2021.
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Possible publication of revised FDA tissue guidance on vCJD, to harmonize donor screening recommendations with the revised recommendations for blood donors issued in April 2020.
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Possible triggering of donor screening for Ebola Virus Disease in 2021 based on new cases recently reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea.
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Low likelihood that FDA or AABB will recommend donor travel screening for COVID-19
COVID-19 TRAVEL NOTICES REVISED BY CDC
January 29, 2021
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The CDC has revised 246 COVID-19 Travel Notices to include the new travel requirement for passengers to have a negative COVID-19 test result or documentation of recovery from COVID-19 before boarding a flight to the United States. Twenty-nine of the revised Travel Notices also reflected a change in the CDC’s COVID-19 risk level, resulting in the reclassification of 13 countries from low to high (do not travel) COVID-19 risk and two countries from high to low (travel with precautions) COVID-19 risk.
Here is a link to the CDC's COVID-19 Travel Health Notices webpage.
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An update to the Donor Screening GEO Guide will be issued on February 1, 2021 to incorporate these changes.
ZIKA UPDATE ISSUED FOR GEO GUIDE TISSUE EDITIONS
January 11, 2021
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In support of the users of the Tissue Edition of the GEO Guide, an update to the Tissue Donor Screening GEO Guide has been issued to reclassify Kenya and Corsica (France) to at increased risk of Zika Virus transmission.
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Update packets have been shipped to all Tissue Edition user sites . Additionally, digital version update files have been uploaded to the CreaTech Solutions ShareFile site and are available for download by approved users.
CDC RAISES ZIKA VIRUS RISK FOR CORSICA & KENYA
January 7, 2021
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Routine monthly change review of relevant pages on the FDA and CDC’s websites revealed that the CDC has upgraded the Zika risk status of Kenya and Corsica (France) to areas with current or past Zika transmission but no Zika outbreak.
These changes warrant an update to the Tissue Donor editions of the GEO Guide. Work on this update will begin immediately with the goal of releasing this update early next week. This update will be shipped in the form of updated pages for hard copy books and CDs for digital version users. Digital version files will also be available for download as always.