Jane Harman, a former Democratic member of Congress from California, presently the head of the Wilson Center, said that Congress’ Republicans are allowing the happening of a catastrophe when babies have started taking birth with Zika-related birth defects in the United States.
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Officials say tracking such cases will create a baseline that can be used to determine whether the virus triggers more birth defects. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine recommends the delay or cancellation of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, slated to begin August 5 of this year. As fears about the vector infiltrating the United States intensify, one British biotech company has offered a possible solution – and it has the Food and Drug Administration, as well as politicians, wondering whether genetically modified mosquitoes can help protect Americans from Zika.
This comes as Consumer Reports reveals it tested 16 popular insect repellants and found that while many can ward off West Nile for up to 8 hours, more than a third of the brands lasted only an hour or less against the mosquito that can spread Zika. We usually think of mosquitoes biting at dusk or at night, but health officials say the ones that spread Zika tend to bite during the day. “It might make sense that first trimester carries the greatest risk but [that] remains to be seen as we get more individual level data”. More than 160,000 people signed a change.org position opposing the Oxitec trial in the Keys, but that was before the onslaught of the Zika virus. He said the Mississippi State Department of Health is working on releasing information and tips to educate the public.
The researchers noted that it remains unclear whether the viral infection itself causes eye abnormalities or if they are a outcome of Zika-induced microcephaly.
The study found the risk of a fetus developing microcephaly ranged from about 1 percent, when most people were infected, to almost 14 percent, when only a small proportion were.
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“It is an appreciable risk”, said Michael Johansson, a CDC biologist and lead author of the study. The state of Sonora identified its first confirmed case of Zika in March, after a resident returned from Brazil. Swofford also says seizures and women giving birth prematurely have been reported. A February study, published in JAMA Ophthalmology, found that 10 of 29 Brazilian babies with microcephaly had eye problems.
