He called the virus an Aedes problem, referring to the mosquito that spreads it. The Ministry of Health has raised alert levels following evidence of the Zika virus in the country.
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“NIH officials have reported that a Zika virus disease vaccine may be developed within three-four years, but we believe it is likely to take longer”, the Government Accountability Office wrote in a Thursday blog post. They then carried out next-generation sequencing to generate the Zika virus genomes and compared these genomes to each other, as well as to other Zika virus genomes from across the Americas.
The authors also point out that the Zika virus could have entered the Americas elsewhere but note that the fact that Brazil was the first country to report infections. The small differences between each sample allowed the scientists to construct Zika’s family tree and estimate when their common ancestor arrived in Brazil. Zika was detected in Brazil in May 2015, and the country is in the midst of an epidemic.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus an global health emergency. For those that are not pregnant, he said if you do get bit by a mosquito and you start to show symptoms, such as fever and inflammation, you should tell your doctor you’ve been bit by a mosquito. It is investigating more than 4,200 additional suspected cases of microcephaly.
According to the CDC, 98% of Americans diagnosed with Zika virus had at least one symptom. They found that the Americas lineage came from the Asian branch of the Zika family tree – not the African one – and is most closely related to the virus from a 2013 outbreak in French Polynesia. The top concern, Dr. Rasmussen said, is for babies born to mothers who may have contracted Zika during their pregnancy.
“We have, over the past several weeks, embarked on a comprehensive program of house-to-house inspections and treatments to reduce Aedes aegypti populations and survey to determine the potential for Aedes aegypti breeding, in anticipation of the Zika virus being introduced to Cayman”, said Bill Petrie, director of the MRCU.
“The mosquito which spreads Zika can also spread dengue”, Dr Gair said.
Lead scientist Andrew Monaghan, however, said that even if Zika spreads across the US, the threat may not be as grave as it is in Latin America.
According to the Cayman Islands Public Health Department’s latest update, the virus is “steadily spreading” throughout the region.
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“The virus is now circulating in 38 countries and territories”.
