IMPORTANT NEWS ON THE mosquito-borne Zika virus
The mosquito-borne Zika virus may infect up to four million people,
the World Health Organization said, as the agency convened to decide if
the outbreak should be declared an international health emergency.
Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, said in a statement on Thursday that the level of alarm was "extremely high".
"Last year, the virus was detected in the Americas, where it is now
spreading explosively. As of today, cases have been reported in 23
countries and territories in the region," Chan said.
"Arrival of the virus in some places has been associated with a steep
increase in the birth of babies with abnormally small heads and [with]
cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome." The syndrome can cause temporary
paralysis.
WHO: Zika virus to spread to much of Americas
Meanwhile, Marcos Espinal, an infectious disease expert at WHO's
Americas' regional office, said: "We can expect three to four million
cases of Zika virus disease." He gave no time frame, the Reuters news
agency reported.
Chan said a causal relationship between Zika virus infection and
birth malformations and neurological syndromes was not yet established,
but was "strongly suspected".
She said the emergency committee would advise her on Monday in Geneva
on the appropriate level of international concern and on recommended
measures that should be undertaken in affected countries and elsewhere.
Chan will also ask the committee to prioritise areas where research is
most urgently needed.
To step up its fight against the mosquito, Brazil has deployed
thousands of municipal, state and federal workers, including soldiers,
to scour cities for mosquito breeding grounds, fumigate and educate
residents on the dangers of still and stagnant water, where the female
insects lay their eggs.
On February 13, the government will deploy 220,000 troops in a
one-day mobilisation to hand out leaflets and help identify potential
trouble spots.
"All of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean are trying
to coordinate so that they take exactly the same measures to diminish
not only the breeding grounds of this mosquito, which also carries
dengue and chikungunya, but also to prevent it from spreading from one
country to another," Al Jazeera's Lucia Newman reported from Santiago,
the capital of Chile.
The Zika virus was first detected in 1947 in Uganda, and for decades,
caused only mild diseases across Africa and equatorial Asia. But Chan
noted that "the situation today is dramatically different".
There is no specific treatment or vaccine for Zika, which is related
to Dengue. Scientists have struggled for years to develop a Dengue
vaccine but have failed to create a viable shot so far.
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