The virus has been linked to an uptick in babies born with a neurological condition called microcephaly which can cause abnormally small heads and serious, sometimes deadly, developmental delays.
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A researcher at Brazil’s University of Sao Paulo speaking about the Zika virus.
The Zika virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947.
Transmitted to humans via mosquitoes, the Aedes mosquito – which also spreads dengue and chikungunya – is the only known carrier of the virus. It is thought to be triggered by an infection something as simple as food poisoning and happens when the immune system attacks the body’s own nervous system.
They say that a vaccine appears to be the best way of stopping Zika.
A map showing the areas with reported active transmission of the Zika virus.
Brazil’s Health Ministry doesn’t track the cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare and potentially life-threatening nerve condition that can leave victims paralyzed and on life-support, but doctors in the northeast have reported a six-fold jump in the number of cases during last year’s rainy season.
Investigations are ongoing in Brazil to confirm that there is a causal link between the two.
Health workers fumigate to prevent Dengue, Chikunguya and Zika virus, at El Angel cemetery, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Jan 20, 2016. In all of 2014, South America’s most-populous nation recorded fewer than 150 cases of microcephaly. Although there has not been concrete scientific proof of the link between Zika and microcephaly disorder in babies, there has been an increase in cases in Brazil. The healthcare workers in Brazil, Colombia and El Salvador have advised women in those countries to avoid the risk by postponing pregnancies.
It prompted the Salvadoran vice minister of health to tell women there not to get pregnant for two years, echoing similar warnings in Colombia and Jamaica.
In Brazil, authorities have announced a crackdown on mosquito breeding grounds ahead of the Olympics, which will bring hundreds of thousands of travelers from around the world to Rio de Janeiro in August.
In the Western hemisphere, cases have been confirmed in the U.S, South America, Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently, people infected with the disease have been found in Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, and Texas. So far, 106 babies have been born to Zika-infected mothers, and the infants are under observation to determine whether their development has been affected by the virus, the ministry said.
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“If a person is infected and then travels to a country where the Aedes mosquito is present, the mosquito can bite the person and thereby introduce the virus in a place where it previously did not exist”, Bellei said.
