Microcephaly has multiple causes and it will be important to rule out other known causes in cases associated with Zika virus.
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Travel advisories, especially for pregnant women, have been in issued for countries in Central and South America, the Caribbean and the Pacific which have active Zika virus transmissions.
It advised condom use for men for six months if they had laboratory-confirmed Zika or symptoms compatible with Zika infection.
Doctors can perform ultrasounds between the 24th and 28th weeks of pregnancy to try to determine if a fetus has microcephaly, Hotez said.
Ms Kieny said on Friday that WHO’s “relatively poor knowledge” of Zika had affected research and development (R&D) options to contain the virus and stop its spread. New evidence of Zika in the brain of an aborted foetus, reported on Wednesday, added to the case.
Castro, a psychiatrist by training who has spent much of the last two decades in Congress, was named minister in October as part of a Cabinet shake-up giving more power to Rousseff’s coalition allies in a bid to shield her from looming impeachment proceedings.
Frieden and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, appeared before the panel to lobby for President Barack Obama’s request for $1.8 billion in emergency funds from Congress to combat the threat of Zika virus.
Marisa Lengor Kwaning, a health policy analyst, claims that the news coverage has blown the Zika virus correlation to microcephaly out of proportion. In fact, approximately 80 percent of people who become infected never experience symptoms.
All of the cases are travel-related, where the infected individuals had traveled out of the country and were diagnosed with the mosquito-borne virus after their return.
In a meeting of religious leaders from all Christian denominations in Brazil, those gathered agreed to use all of their resources to help guide people in avoiding the virus. Brazil has confirmed more than 400 of those cases as microcephaly and has identified the presence of Zika in 17 babies but a causal link has yet to be proven. The World Health Organization (WHO) now estimates there could be up to 4 million cases of Zika in the Americas in the next year. However, many states don’t allow abortions that late in a pregnancy. That timeline is similar to one suggested by researchers elsewhere, many of whom say the clinical availability of a Zika vaccine is still at least three years away, Reuters reported. The CDC recently reported it found the virus in the placentas of two American women who experienced miscarriages after traveling to places where Zika is present. Both facilities specialize in viruses that are transmitted by mosquitos.
Global health officials are closely monitoring the spread of the virus and the incidence of suspected neurological complications.
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“The Ministry has advised the public not to panic, and that the best prevention method for Zika virus is the destruction of Aedes mosquito breeding spots, as well as refraining from traveling to areas with the ongoing epidemic, wearing clothes that cover the whole body, and putting on mosquito repellent”.
