The level of alarm is extremely high, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan told her Executive Board in Geneva, noting that for decades the disease, transmitted by the Aedes genus of mosquito, slumbered, affecting mainly monkeys and occasionally causing a mild disease of low concern in humans.
Advertisement
The WHO says this viral outbreak should be considered a global emergency, but local physicians say the virus is not an issue in the states right now.
The operator of Air Transat says pregnant passengers with a medical note and companions in their immediate family can reschedule or change destinations if they were booked to fly to countries that have been listed by the Pan American Health Organization as having the virus.
Officials from the US National Institute of Health (NIH) said they had two potential Zika vaccines in development.
The Boston Public Health Commission says the patient is a Boston resident who contracted the virus while traveling to a country where transmission is ongoing.
Brazil alone has reported more than 4,000 cases of microcephaly.
Though, an estimated 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms.
“What we have to assume is anywhere where they have the Aedes (mosquitoes), they could have the Zika virus and they should have the tools to be able to look for it”, he said.
The Asian tiger mosquitoes have an even bigger range and are found across the entire southeastern USA, into Missouri and Oklahoma and as far north as NY and into temperate areas of South America.
“In the area of vaccines, I do know that there has been some work done by some groups looking at the feasibility of a Zika virus vaccine”.
Nigeria’s Health Ministry is warning citizens against traveling to Latin America because of the Zika virus outbreak, and is especially recommending that pregnant women not go there.
Chan promised a quick action from the World Health Organization, stressing that this has become urgent because there is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, which is like dengue and causes mild fever, rash and red eyes.
There are now four categories of countries globally: one, countries who have the virus as well as the birth malformations, like Brazil, two, countries only with the virus, like Colombia, three, countries, like India, who have the vector, and four, countries like Chile and Canada who do not have the vector.
Since the start of the outbreak in 2015, five United Kingdom travellers have been diagnosed with the Zika virus. It is the main culprit of the zika epidemic as well as that of other viruses like dengue or chikungunya.
Zika virus usually remains in the blood of an infected person for a few days but it can be found longer in some people.
Officials urged women who are pregnant or plan on becoming pregnant to avoid traveling to areas of transmission.
Advertisement
Water bodies were fumigated to stop mosquitoes breeding.
