Top U.S. Health officials say the Zika virus is scarier than they initially thought, and they’re urging again that they don’t have the money to fight the spread of the mosquito borne virus here in the U.S.
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“Since we last discussed the Zika virus, we continue to be learning pretty much every day, and most of what we’re learning is not reassuring”, Principle Deputy Director for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Dr Anne Schuchat said. She said what authorities were learning about the virus was “scarier than we initially thought”.
Also on Monday, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health cited recent discoveries about how destructive Zika appears to be to fetal brains.
Zika has been linked to microcephaly, a birth defect and as of this week, the CDC saying it maybe responsible for other pregnancy complications such as premature births and eye problems.
“What we do when someone gets sick is, we support them”, Fauci said, explaining that that means providing symptom relief. Additionally, experts are looking into the possibility of the virus being transmitted sexually.
But senior public health officials noted that the 346 cases of Zika in the continental USA are all the result of travelers infected while visiting tropical locations such as Brazil, Puerto Rico and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
“So instead of about 12 states, where the mosquito Aedes aegypti is present, we believe about 30 states have the mosquito present”, Dr. Schuchat said.
Schuchat said anywhere between 25 percent to 80 percent of the population could become infected as the virus moves across new countries. She also said that Zika has been linked to more birth defects throughout a longer period of pregnancy than had been known before.
“I would say that the southern part of the United States and southern Europe are definitely at risk”, tropical medicine professor Eskild Petersen of Denmark’s Aarhus University said at a conference in Amsterdam. Research has shown health leaders since the virus began to spread. Out of the total cases, 32 were pregnant women, while seven of them acquired the virus through sexual activity.
“When the president asked for $1.9 billion, we needed $1.9 billion”, says Dr Fauci. “We couldn’t just stop and wait for the money”.
“With increased information we recognize that the Aedes aegypti mosquito may be present in about 30 states, as far north as San Francisco, Kansas City, Mo., and New York City”, she said.
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“We also want people to know that travel to the area may lead to “silent” infections or infections with symptoms, and that following infections, it’s very important to take precautions during sex not to spread the virus”, Schuchat said. “Ebola is still circulating in Liberia and Guinea, and numerous vulnerable countries in Africa are having outbreaks right now”, Schuchat said.
