“We are dealing with an emerging strain of this virus”. This is the only the second-known case of Zika being sexually transmitted.
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The UN-body has declared the situation a “public health emergency of worldwide concern” and has created a global Zika response unit to contain the virus. In an interview on NPR’s “All Things Considered” published on January 30, 2016, reporter Lourdes Garcia-Navarro interviewed staff of a fertility clinic and abortion activists who decried the slowing down of in vitro fertilizations as women were afraid to become pregnant lest their child be born with birth defects and disabilities due to the Zika virus.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said on Monday it was “strongly suspected but not yet scientifically proven” that Zika causes microcephaly.
Serum was transferred into mice, and they all became sick, leading to the virus – which was isolated from their brains – to be named Zika. The four destinations added were American Samoa, Costa Rica, Curacao and Nicaragua. A treatment could take years to be available, and health officials have so far emphasized mosquito control to try and contain the virus.
Murillo says the country is monitoring World Health Organization recommendations and has directed local health authorities to pay close attention to pregnant women who may have contracted Zika. “It’s not like HIV where you have infectivity that can go on for months or years”, Frieden said.
“The FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] is looking at the issue of blood supply, blood donors and travelers”, Fauci said.
The most urgent job is simply developing tools to detect and measure Zika virus infections.
The health officials’ recommendation for Brazilian women to avoid pregnancy may make sense, but while contraception is widely distributed by public hospitals, a 2009 study revealed that north and north-east regions of Brazil have fewer doctors than more affluent regions, with only two doctors per 1,000 inhabitants.
Two years ago, it caused a widespread outbreak in French Polynesia where 11 per cent of the entire population were treated. There is no vaccine nor are there any medications to prevent or treat Zika infections, according to the agency.
However, Schuchat emphasized that the main health concern at this time is for pregnant women who are exposed to the virus. “Huwag nating gamitin right and left dahil ang priority ngayon ay ang 29 countries”, she said.
Other symptoms include fevers, rashes, joint pain and conjunctivitis.
Schuchat said that “it’s very rare for a person with Zika to get seriously ill or to die” from it.
The Ministry of Health in Brazil has also reported a rise in other neurological conditions since the outbreak, but as yet there is no evidence to suggest direct links.
A parallel effort aims at mimicking microcephaly transfer in mice, so scientists can understand how the virus and the birth defect are related. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, the other six had recently traveled to a country with Zika. The mosquito is a vector for the proliferation of the Zika virus spreading throughout Latin America.
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“We have routine daily actions in the area in order to diminish the number of mosquitoes”, he said.
