Although WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said there was no definitive proof that the Zika virus, spread by mosquitoes, is responsible for the birth defects, she acknowledged on Thursday that “the level of alarm is extremely high”.
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Nigeria has begun to closely monitor and screen people at various port of entry, especially for the people with recent travel history to Latin America, the official said, adding no single case has so far been recorded in the West African country.
Officials from Brazil and global health organizations are trying to determine if a widespread outbreak of the virus there is related to a seemingly sudden upswing in cases of birth defects.
There is now no treatment or vaccine for the Zika virus infection.
The U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is planning a hearing on Zika “very soon”, said Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who called the threat posed by the virus to the United States a “big concern”.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), visualized by HealthGrove, shows the slow creep of the virus from the top of South America up to Mexico.
Health officials are advising pregnant women and those planning pregnancy to adopt necessary anti-mosquito precautions, and consider deferring travel.
Zika virus infection may also go unrecognised or be misdiagnosed as dengue, chikungunya or other viral infections causing fever and rash, according to the Public Health Agency. “First [we will look at] the panorama around the world; what countries are doing, in which countries it (Zika virus) has developed [and] how it is presenting”.
A man on a wheelchair waits outside his home as Nicaraguan Health Ministry workers fumigate against the Aedes aegypti mosquito to prevent the spread of the Zika virus in Managua, on January 26, 2015.
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The WHO predicts that three to four million people could be infected with Zika virus in the Americas this year and is taking precautions to protect those who will attending the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil. “We don’t see it in U.S”. “More research is still needed on transmission and effects of this disease”.
