Specifically it goes into researching the link between Zika, microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome, along with developing better ways of testing for the virus, studying how it gets transmitted, and finding better ways of preventing transmission from mosquitoes.
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Dr. Catherine M. Brown, deputy state epidemiologist, gave a presentation on Zika at the request of the Public Health Council, an appointed board of physicians, academics, and consumer advocates that sets health policy.
The Centers for Disease Control has recorded 426 travel-related Zika cases in the states and D.C., including a handful through sexual transmission, though the virus is expected to puncture the mainland once temperatures rise, allowing mosquito populations to flourish.
“This is my miracle”, she said.
“It’s quite remarkable what the Zika virus is doing to the brain of young infants”, Bale says.
And Massachusetts has experience with mosquito-borne viruses, thanks to West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE), Brown noted.
Zika has become rampant in South and Central America, parts of Mexico and the Caribbean.
Now, experimental evidence has been delivered showing Zika readily crosses the placenta of pregnant mice to cause brain damage in their foetuses.
“Because of the particular risk of Zika virus to pregnant women, we’re making the very strong recommendation that if you are pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant in very near future that you should avoid traveling to places where Zika virus transmission is ongoing”, Brown said.
With 112 cases, the two senators’ home state has the most instances of Zika virus reported in the continental U.S. They include fever, rash, pain in the joints and pink eye. Hospitalization is rare, and 80 percent of people do not develop symptoms. Symptoms usually occur two to seven days after infection.
In Canada, the Zika threat itself has been low because the country doesn’t have the Aedes type of mosquito that spreads the virus.
While these mosquitos are not prevalent in Vermont, Kelso says they can be found in a number of southern states, and that this situation needs to be monitored.
That means more traps in which females lay eggs and the species is identified through the adults emerging from the eggs. “Most of these babies’ mothers were infected by the Zika virus”, Qin said.
Government investment in public health has been declining for years.
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Are there co-factors that precipitate the birth defects/fetal losses? This bill seeks to add the Zika virus to the list of diseases included in the Tropical Disease Priority Review Voucher Program at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
