BREAKING NEWS
The
World Health Organization announced that it has convened an emergency
committee to try to find ways to stop the Zika virus, which is
transmitted by mosquitoes, from spreading across the Americas.
- 9 minutes ago
WHO: Zika virus ‘spreading explosively,’ ‘level of alarm extremely high’
The World Health Organization announced Thursday that it would convene an emergency meeting to try to find ways to stop the transmission of the Zika virus — which officials said is "spreading explosively" across the Americas.
Cleane Serpa, 18, holds her 1-month-old cousin, Maria Eduarda, who was born with microcephaly, at her aunt's home in Recife, Brazil, on Jan. 9. The mosquito-borne Zika virus continues to spread in Brazil, alarming health officials and expecting mothers that their babies will be born with an abnormal brain development called microcephaly.
"The level of alarm is extremely high, as is the level of uncertainty. Questions abound. We need to get some answers quickly, " Margaret Chan, the director-general of the WHO, said in a briefing to member countries in Geneva.
Chan said that the situation today is dramatically different than last year and that "the level of alarm is extremely high."
Health officials said the number of countries impacted by mosquitoes that are spreading the virus locally is now up to 23. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the United States now has 31 laboratory confirmed cases, all are travel-related and "this number is increasing rapidly." The country also has 20 additional cases because of local transmission in U.S. territories — 19 in Puerto Rico and one in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Brazil is currently the epicenter of Zika, and public health officials are investigating a link between the virus and a rare brain defect called microcephaly in infants, as well as a nervous system syndrome known as Guillain-Barré that can lead to paralysis.
During a briefing to the WHO executive board on Thursday, Brazil’s health minister, Claudio Maierovitch, said the country is investigating 12 confirmed deaths of babies born with microcephaly for potential linkage with Zika virus infection.
The country has more than 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly. Some of those have turned out not to be microcephaly, but many of them have been confirmed through ultrasound, he said. He did not provide a figure.
Pregnant women who tested positive for the Zika virus have had rash and fever during the “first and second parts of their pregnancy,” he said.
Marcos Espinal, director of communicable diseases and health analysis for the Pan American Health Organization, said Zika is likely to spread to the same areas where dengue exists and predicted that “we can expect 3 to 4 million cases of Zika virus disease.”
That reach includes parts of the southern United States, according to a map he presented at the briefing.
Representatives from several countries raised concerns about whether we’re seeing a potentially more virulent mutated virus in the Americas, but WHO officials said that tests so far show that it’s “very similar” to what was circulating in the Pacific region several years ago.
WHO health officials said current efforts are focused on controlling the spread of the virus by controlling mosquito populations and urged “every community, every family and individual” to do their part by doing things like taking care not to leave stagnant collections of water on their properties.
Chan emphasized that every person in the world could be vulnerable to the virus. “The mosquito is ubiquitous,” she said. “You don’t need to travel to get the disease.”
The WHO emergency session on Zika is scheduled to take place on Monday.
COPY www.washingtonpost.com/news
