Health experts in the United States have warned that rising temperatures over the coming months could see the Zika virus spread rapidly, particularly in southern states.
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Brazilian officials have recorded 3,670 suspected cases of microcephaly since October. In 2014, there were 147 cases across the whole country.
Doctors fear the mosquito-born illness is causing the birth defect that results in abnormally small heads and brains in infants.
Officials say a vaccine typically takes ten years to develop, but they are working with urgency to find a Zika cure.
Frieden stressed, however, that “the vast majority of spread is going to be from mosquitoes”, and that “the bottom line is mosquitoes are the real culprit here”. Symptoms to watch for include a fever, joint and muscle pain, rashes, conjunctivitis and headaches.
Jackson says we’re likely talking several years, rather than a decade to establish a vaccine. The person who contracted the virus from the traveler had not gone overseas. The CDC said investigations are ongoing to better understand what services will be most effective for these children as they grow.
The virus gets its name comes from a forest in Uganda where it was first discovered in infected rhesus monkeys in 1947. “Its historical home has been in a narrow equatorial belt stretching across Africa and into equatorial Asia”, Dr. Chan explained to the WHO Executive Board in a January 28 briefing. “During the first week or so of infection, Zika virus can be passed from an infected person to another mosquito through mosquito bites”. Another alternative would be to create an attenuated Zika virus using a method similar to the one in the development of the dengue vaccine.
“The situation today is dramatically different”, said Dr. Chan.
About four out of five people get the Zika virus and have no symptoms. “The level of alarm is extremely high”.
Can Zika be transmitted through sexual contact? “This is just the first case described”. Cases believed to be linked to Zika have been reported in Brazil and French Polynesia.
“There have been isolated cases of spread through blood transfusion or sexual contact and that’s not very surprising”, CDC Director Tom Frieden told CNN.
There is now no evidence that Zika is transmitted to babies through breast milk.
Sexual transmission could add a new dimension to the threat Zika poses, but World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl stressed that “almost a 100 percent of the cases” are transmitted by the bite of a mosquito.
“In August, Brazil will be the host country for the Olympic Games”.
It was carried by a person who had been in Venezuela and was transmitted to a sexual partner who had never been outside the United States.
She later tested positive for Zika, even though she had not left the U.S.in years.
In the epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean, the main villain identified so far is called Aedes aegypti – a species of mosquito that spreads other tropical diseases, including chikungunya and dengue fever.
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The WHO declared a global health emergency over Zika Feb. 1.
