January 29, 2016 - HEALTH - Here are the latest news reports on the Zika virus, as it spreads "explosively" across the Americas.
British travelers advised to use condoms, delay trying for a baby
Couples trying to conceive a baby should delay for one month if one or both partners have just returned from a Central or South American country afflicted by the Zika virus, health officials have warned.
Information from Public Health England (PHE) suggests men use condoms for at least 28 days after returning from any of the 23 countries, including Brazil and Mexico, especially if their partner is not taking a contraceptive or is already pregnant.
Its advice comes after a warning for pregnant women to avoid traveling to countries where there has been an outbreak.
Men who suffered symptoms of the Zika virus, including fever, rash and joint pain, should avoid having unprotected sex for six months, the healthcare body warned.
There is no known cure or treatment for the Zika virus, and experts say a vaccination could be years away from being fully developed.
While it is not deadly to humans, the virus is thought to trigger microcephaly in fetuses, and cause them to be born with abnormally small heads and brains.
In Central and South America some 4,000 babies are thought to have been affected by the disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated the spread of the disease could leave 4 million infected by the end of 2016.
PHE warned returning travelers against unprotected sex.
“If a female partner is at risk of getting pregnant, or is already pregnant, condom use is advised for a male traveler for 28 days after his return from a Zika transmission area if he had no symptoms of unexplained fever and rash,” the advice read.
“Condom use is advised for a male traveler for 6 months following recovery if a clinical illness compatible with Zika virus infection or laboratory confirmed Zika virus infection was reported.”
Six Britons have already been found to have contracted the virus, which is transmitted through mosquito bites. They caught the disease while travelling in Columbia, Mexico and other South American countries.
Dr Anthony Wilson from the Pirbright Institute explained that the mosquitoes that carry the virus would find it hard to survive in the UK.
“Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito, does not occur in the UK. It’s too cold for Aedes aegypti to establish in the UK, although in ideal summer conditions introduced individual mosquitoes might be able to survive for a few days; there was a small outbreak of yellow fever in Wales (Swansea) in 1861 which is believed to have been spread via mosquitoes that were inadvertently introduced on a ship returning from Cuba,” he told the Telegraph.
“It is plausible that a related species, Aedes albopictus (the Asian tiger mosquito) could be playing a role in the transmission of Zika virus in the Brazilian outbreak; it has been implicated during other Zika outbreaks.”However, one British expert claims that the mosquitos have already been spotted in the English countryside, saying they could travel to the country in the stagnant water trapped in car tires. -
RT.
Brazilian President Calls for Mosquito Extermination Amid Zika Virus Spread
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REUTERS/ Ueslei Marcelino
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The current Zika virus outbreak originated in Brazil last year and later
spread across Latin America, having been registered in over 20
different countries since March 2015.
"While we don't have a vaccine against the
virus Zika, the war should focus on the extermination of mosquito
breeding sites," Rousseff wrote on Twitter.
On Wednesday, Nicaragua became the 22nd country affected by the Zika
outbreak. The country’s government announced that two people had been
infected with the virus in the country’s capital, Managua.
The Zika virus affects primarily monkeys and humans and is
transmitted by daytime-active mosquitos. It does not cause serious
complications in adults, however, it can lead to babies being born
with microcephaly, which is a case of an underdeveloped brain.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned pregnant
women to avoid traveling to at least 24 countries in Latin America, the
Caribbean and the Pacific amid the Zika virus outbreak. -
Sputnik.
Brazil fumigates Olympic venue as fears mount over Zika
Concerns over the
Zika virus reached new heights on Tuesday after Brazil sent fumigators into Rio de Janeiro's world-famous carnival venue that will help host the Olympic games amid intensified efforts to control the mosquito-borne infection.
Workers in protective overalls and goggles sprayed the Sambadrome facility two weeks before it stages next month's carnival parades even as a senior official stoked further fears by suggesting that the war against Zika - thought to cause brain defects in new-born babies - was being lost.
The 90,000-capacity Sambadrome - which has hosted outdoor concerts by major acts like David Bowie and the Rolling Stones - is one of Rio's most iconic venues and will stage the archery events during this summer's Olympic games.
It became the unexpected focus of attention in the government's public health campaign against Zika as Marcelo Castro, Brazil's health minister, said 220,,000 troops would go door-to-door in an attempt to eradicate the virus before the carnival takes place on February 7 and 8.
Mosquito repellent would be handed out to 400,000 women on social welfare, he said.
Yet Mr Castro appeared to undermine hopes of re-assuring the public by saying that the drive to combat the virus had come too late, prompting calls for him to be sacked.
The country was "badly losing the battle" against the
Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits Zika, as well as dengue, hikungunya and yellow fever, he told a crisis meeting in Brasilia, Brazil's capital city.
"The mosquito has been here in Brazil for three decades, and we are badly losing the battle against the mosquito," he said in comments that were criticised as "fatalistic" by the Geneva-based World Health Organisation. -
Telegraph.
Puerto Rico Confirms 19 Cases of Zika Virus
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REUTERS/ Denis Balibouse
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The US territory of Puerto Rico has 19 cases of the mosquito-born
Zika virus, which is believed to cause serious birth defects if
contracted by pregnant women, the Puerto Rico Health Department
confirmed on Tuesday.
"[Puerto Rico] today confirmed 19 cases of Zika
virus in Puerto Rico, chiefly in the southeastern zone," Health
Department Secretary Ana Riu was quoted as saying by El Vocero.
The US Centers for Disease Control has stated there are serious birth
defects of the brain called microcephaly as well as other poor
pregnancy outcomes in babies of mothers who were infected with the Zika
virus. The Zika virus can be spread from pregnant women to unborn
babies.
Puerto Rico epidemiologist Brenda Rivera said the majority
of cases are in the island's southeast region, according to a separate
report on Fox News. None of the victims were pregnant and that many
of were elderly, Rivera added. -
Sputnik.
Zika virus transmitted through sex in 2 possible cases – US health authority
There are two recorded cases when the highly dangerous Zika virus may have been transmitted through sexual intercourse, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. The WHO says between 3 and 4 million people may have been infected this year. "There is one reported case of Zika virus through possible sexual transmission," said Anna Schuchat, deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), referring to the case of a 44-year-old Tahiti man who contracted the virus during its outbreak in French Polynesia in 2013.
A test revealed high levels of the virus in his semen even after it was no longer present in his blood samples, the New York Times reported.
Another case of Zika exposure through sex dates back to 2008. Dr. Brian D. Foy, a US biologist, was infected with the virus while conducting a malaria research in Senegal. He was reportedly bitten by the mosquitoes he collected for the study. After coming back to Colorado, he displayed various symptoms, including a rash, fatigue and a headache that ensued from as then-unidentified infection, apparently transmitted by mosquitoes. He also complained about pain in his genitals and blood in his semen.
His assistant, Kevin C. Kobylinski, who was working along him in Africa, developed similar symptoms. Both were tested negative for malaria, dengue and yellow fever, which the Aedes mosquito typically carries. In a few days, the mysterious virus manifested itself in Foy’s wife, who also suffered from a rash, severe headache and bloodshot eyes.
In 2009, after their frozen blood samples were retested for the Zika virus, the results came back positive. While no one of Foy’s four children fell ill and his wife couldn’t have caught the infection in Colorado, Foy concluded that Zika virus was “most likely a sexual transmitted infection.” He wrote about his finding in an
article for a medical journal in 2011.
Despite the worrying evidence, the CDC stressed that "the science is very clear to date that the Zika virus is primarily transmitted to people through the bite of an infected mosquito,” adding that efforts should be put into preventing that kind of transmission.
However, some scientists urge not to be skeptical about the chances of the illness to be sexually transmitted.Two cases “are not really enough to warrant a large public health recommendation from the CDC. But it’s provocative, so someone else could recommend it. And it certainly should be studied,” said Dr. William Schaffner, chief of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical. -
RT.
Zika in Texas? 'We have the perfect storm to allow virus to flourish'
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When Dr Peter Hotez hears experts assert that Zika is unlikely to spread significantly in the US, his response is: go to the Houston’s Fifth Ward and look around.
Photograph: Tom Dart for the Guardian |
Dr Peter Hotez gestured at three tyres dumped on the weed-ravaged, litter-strewn roadside by a boarded-up house on Worms Street.
To Hotez they were more than an eyesore – they signified a potential health hazard, the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes that could spread the
Zika virus.
The
World Health Organisation has warned that the virus is spreading “explosively” through the Americas, with one estimate that there could be as many as 4m infections across the continent over the next year.
At a special briefing in Geneva on Thursday, Margaret Chan, the WHO director general warned it was a threat of “alarming proportions”. Hotez, an eminent scientist and researcher who is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, agrees.
“I’m quite convinced it’s going to be all over the Caribbean within the next few weeks. And then, where’s next?” he said. “Where we’re standing here in the Gulf Coast … Pretty much all of the Gulf Coast cities are vulnerable but Houston is the largest.”
It is less than 15 minutes’ drive from Hotez’s office in the world’s biggest medical complex to the Fifth Ward, a historic, mostly African American quarter just north-east of downtown Houston.
When he hears experts assert that Zika is unlikely to spread significantly in the US, his response is: go to the Fifth Ward and look around.
Broken window screens lie discarded a few feet away from the tyres. A block away, more tyres, a sofa, armchairs, drawers and a colorful variety of other household waste were piled in the street. A rooster crowed somewhere, barely audible above the drone of the traffic barrelling through on the nearby knot of elevated freeways. It was a grey, damp morning. The streets had not yet fully drained from the overnight rain. In some sodden nooks it seemed doubtful they ever would.
“I could show you dozens of neighborhoods like this in south-east
Texas, along the Gulf Coast,” said Hotez. “What we have is dilapidated housing, inadequate or absent window screens, standing water, poor drainage, which are going to allow the mosquitoes to breed, and then the classic piece to this is the discarded tyres along the side of the road. Aedes mosquitoes love discarded tyres filled with water.”
Reports emerged this week that two people in Virginia and Arkansas who had traveled abroad had tested positive for the virus, which is spread when infected mosquitoes bite people. The most common symptoms are mild but it can be transmitted from pregnant mothers to babies. -
The Guardian.
‘I ached and my hands felt frozen’: A Zika virus victim’s tale
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| Jade Coelho de MirandaPhoto: Carlos Augusto |
Contracting the Zika virus is as scary as it sounds,
according to 21-year-old Brazilian college student Jade Coelho de
Miranda, who was infected last year. She told The Post about her
first-hand experience with the virus and its effect on her hometown of
Rio de Janeiro, the epicenter of the outbreak.
Last October, I frequently hung around a large park at my college, the Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. I didn’t think much of all the mosquitoes in the area — until I broke out in a rash that covered my entire body.
I was scared.
I told my dad, and soon found myself at a hospital, where they did multiple tests that confirmed I had contracted the Zika virus.
For the next week, I had severe muscle pain and a fever, two of the most common side effects of the infection caused by Aedes mosquito bites.
My whole body felt immobilized. I started having difficulty moving my hands — feeling like they were frozen. My eyes became irritated, too.
It was a terrible week. I couldn’t go out, exercise or do anything because the joint pain was so strong.
My pain was bad, but it was nothing compared to my father’s.
He was diagnosed a few days after me. His case was worse because it developed into a rare disease called Guillain-Barré syndrome, causing him to experience weakness in his legs and upper body.
He said he had pins-and-needles sensations in his fingers, toes, ankles and wrists for three months.
Cases like my dad’s worry me the most, as Zika has a different effect on each person. Some people might develop a rare syndrome like he did.
Right now, a lot of people in Brazil are afraid of Zika, especially pregnant women. Each week, there are more cases of newborn children being diagnosed with microcephaly, a birth defect that causes smaller skulls and brains.
There are some things we can do to prevent the Zika virus from spreading — wear bug spray, cover exposed skin, close domestic water tanks to prevent mosquitoes from getting in and dispose of garbage in a timely fashion.
I heard that soon, Americans may experience an outbreak. It is important that if you feel any of the symptoms I described, you go see a doctor immediately. Staying home and resting were essential to me feeling better.
While I’m not pleased that Zika is spreading, I am more hopeful that something will change now that it has garnered international attention.
Maybe now, authorities will be motivated to research the virus and finally be able to provide a solution for this disease.
We need a vaccine now.
We need a cure now — before it gets worse. -
New York Post.
