The minister ordered to establish a technical group to monitor the developments arising out of spread of the Zika virus in other countries.
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The Zika virus, transmitted by the aggressive Aedes aegypti mosquito, has now spread to at least 24 countries.
Microcephaly is a condition in which a child is born with a skull too small for his or her brain, resulting in significant mental damage.
Declaring that the Zika virus is “spreading explosively”, the World Health Organization announced it will hold an emergency meeting of independent experts Monday to decide if the outbreak should be declared an worldwide health emergency.
Since November, Brazil has seen 4,180 cases of microcephaly in babies born to women who were infected with Zika during their pregnancies.
In addition, the CDC says there have been documented cases of virus transmission during labor, blood transfusion, laboratory exposure and sexual contact. In U.S. territories, Puerto Rico has 19 confirmed cases and the U.S. Virgin Islands has one.
“We really need to concentrate on mosquito control”, Chan said in a briefing to the Executive Committee of the WHO.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has called for a meeting of the member nations of South America’s Mercosur trading bloc to discuss ways to join forces to eliminate the Aedes mosquito and the Zika virus it transmits.
“FDA is diligently working with its federal partners and with stakeholders, including blood collection establishments and industry organizations, to rapidly implement appropriate donor deferral measures for travelers who have visited affected regions in order to protect the blood supply”, FDA spokeswoman Tara Goodin said in an email.
The committee will first assess if Zika constitutes an emergency of global concern or not.
Marcos Espinal, head of communicable diseases and health analysis at WHO’s Americas office, said the region should expect “three to four million cases” of Zika, without proving a timeframe for the outbreak to ramp up to that level.
“There’s still a lot we don’t know, so we have to be very careful about making any absolute predictions”, says Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Chan said that while a direct causal relationship between Zika virus infection and birth malformations has not yet been established, it is “strongly suspected”.
There are no vaccines, specific treatments or rapid diagnostic tests for the zika virus – which causes a fever, joint pain, itching, rash, bloodshot eyes, headaches, muscle pain and eye pain.
The World Health Organization has called Thursday’s special session on Zika in part to convey its concern about an otherwise mild illness that has sown fear among many would-be mothers in Brazil, who have often responded by covering themselves head-to-toe in clothing in the often hot, largely tropical country or slopped on many coats of insect repellent.
“In another case, Zika virus was found in semen about two weeks after a man had symptoms with Zika virus infection, so that sort of gives you the biologic plausibility of spread”. The other, which is probably more promising, involves using DNA from the virus to formulate a vaccine, he said.
At a special meeting Thursday in Geneva, WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said the virus – which has been linked to birth defects and neurological problems – is becoming more of a threat.
“It is far better”, said the Georgetown University public health expert, “to be overprepared than to wait until a Zika epidemic spins out of control”.
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“The level of concern is high, as is the level of uncertainty”. That bug eventually killed more than 11,000 people, mostly in Africa.
