Of the countries with the largest at risk populations, the authors suggested that India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Nigeria, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Bangladesh might be most vulnerable to impact due to their limited per capita health resources.
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The committee heard updates from the governments of the US, Brazil, and Singapore, which has reported more than 150 cases of Zika since the disease cropped up there about a week ago.
The virus has been linked to birth defects including microcephaly-a condition where infants are born with underdeveloped brains and, consequently, small heads-with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) saying in April that there was sufficient evidence to assume a causal link between Zika and microcephaly.
As the outbreak spreads, many of Singapore’s five million people are covering up and staying indoors to avoid mosquitoes as health experts warn that virus in the tropical city-state would be hard to contain.
According to the Florida Department of Health, there have been 47 cases of Zika in people believed to have contracted the virus through local mosquitoes.
‘Our findings could offer valuable information to support time-sensitive public health decision-making at local, national and global levels’.
The team, from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Oxford University and the University of Toronto, wrote that “vast numbers” of people were living in places where preventing, detecting and responding to the virus would prove hard.
In the absence of any effective treatments or vaccines for the disease- and given past failures to wipe out the mosquitoes that mostly spread Zika – Heymann said it will largely be up to individuals to avoid infection.
Countries with populations at risk for Zika virus importation and subsequent spread include India (67,422 travellers arriving per year; 1.2 billion residents in potential Zika transmission areas), China (238,415 travellers; 242 million residents), Indonesia (13,865 travellers; 197 million residents), the Philippines (35,635 travellers; 70 million residents) and Thailand (29241 travellers; 59 million residents).
The research team analyzed airline passenger traffic data from 689 cities with commercial airports in the Americas.
Salama said that while Zika samples from the country appear to be from the African strain, it hasn’t been determined whether the African strain of the virus might also be responsible for the neurological problems.
The health ministry is warning travelers going to high-risk areas to stay alert after researchers said Friday that at least 2.6 billion people living in parts of Africa, Asia and the Pacific are at risk of Zika infection.
The authors note that the health consequences of imported Zika virus will depend on local ability to diagnose and respond to a possible outbreak, but will also depend on possible underlying levels of immunity to Zika virus.
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The authors said that travellers returning from affected areas would benefit from health education to prevent sexual transmission.
