Brazil is investigating the potential link between Zika infections and more than 4,300 suspected cases of microcephaly, a condition marked by abnormally small head size that can result in developmental problems.
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The Health Ministry said in its weekly bulletin on the subject that 462 cases of microcephaly have been confirmed, another 765 have been dismissed, and 3,852 patients are still being examined.
The CDC has advised pregnant women to avoid travel to areas where the virus is spreading, and for men who travel to these areas and have a pregnant partner to either use condoms or abstain from sex until their partner gives birth.
Brazilian troops are going door to door, handing out four million leaflets advising people about the risks of the virus which is carried by mosquitoes.
Workers disinfect the famous Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 26 January 2016, ahead of the beginning of Rio’s Carnival parades, on 5 February, to fight against the mosquito “Aedes aegypti”, which spreads the Zika, Dengue and Chikunguna viruses.
The outbreak of the Zika virus has been declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Furthermore, Marcelo Castro, Brazil’s health minister said on Friday that authorities were absolutely sure that the Zika virus is connected to birth defects. These kits are especially to be used by pregnant women returning from Latin America and the Caribbean. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has issued an advisory to Australians who intend to travel to countries where the virus is prevalent.
“Zika virus infection was confirmed for three of the GBS cases, including one fatal case”. Brazil usually reports about 150 such cases a year, the AP says.
The implications of sexually-transmitted Zika: Although the Zika virus is mostly transmitted via mosquito some rare cases of sexual transmission via semen have been documented in the past, and a person in Dallas, Texas recently got infected via sexual transmission.
There are mounting concerns among health officials preparing for the Olympics.
In response to criticism that Brazil was moving too slowly to confirm cases of microcephaly, Castro said the federal government was pushing states and local governments to speed up tests on newborns.
There is now no cure or vaccine for Zika. We know from academic reports that in December 2013, during a Zika outbreak in French Polynesia, a patient that was seeking treatment for hematospermia (blood in the semen) was found to have Zika in his semen.
According to the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Preventions, GBS symptoms include muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis.
Castro cited the Amazonian state of Acre, which managed to slash the incidence of dengue to 350 cases a year ago from over 30,000, as an example of the key role played by local communities.
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Earlier this week, researchers in Slovenia published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine describing a severely brain damaged fetus from a mother who was infected with Zika in Brazil and later terminated the pregnancy.
