Rio de Janeiro: President Dilma Rousseff said on Wednesday that Brazil must wage war against the Aedes aegypti mosquito that spreads the Zika virus linked to a surge in cases of a risky birth defect, focussing on eliminating the insect’s breeding grounds.
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The jump in cases has prompted a global health scare, with several countries cautioning pregnant women against travelling to the 22 nations in the Americas where the virus has been reported. The rare birth defect causes babies to be born with unusually small heads and can cause lasting developmental problems.
The HSE’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre says that El Salvador, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Suriname, French Guiana, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and Martinique have been worst hit, with those countries seeing “a rapidly evolving Zika virus epidemic” with an increasing or widespread transmission.
A Virginia resident who traveled outside the United States has tested positive for the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus, state health officials said on Tuesday. The health officials had the man’s bedroom fumigated and assessed neighbors that may have had contact and exhibiting the same symptoms as precaution. United has linked to the Center for Disease Control’s Zika travel advice, which now includes Central America, South America and the Caribbean.
Municipal workers pause to refill the insecticide sprayer during an operation to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that transmits the Zika virus at the Imbiribeira neighborhood in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016.
The Health Ministry said Brazilian states were not required to report microcephaly cases before November.
The World Health Organization has stressed that a link remains circumstantial and is not yet proven scientifically.
In subsequent investigation, tests were done to see if the brain has been affected. Six of the 270 confirmed microcephaly cases were found to have the virus. Then late a year ago, after noting what they said was a spike in the birth defect, Brazilian authorities for the first time asked doctors to report cases of patients in their care. There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, a close cousin of dengue and chikungunya, which causes mild fever and rash.
Castro said the government also would distribute mosquito repellent to some 400,000 pregnant women.
Officials said babies found to be microcephalic and their mothers are given additional tests to see if they had the Zika virus – often a hard process.
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The move comes as Brazil desperately looks to raise awareness of the virus and encourage people to combat the mosquito.
