Source: Zika Virus ‘Spreading Explosively’ in Americas, W.H.O. Says
Category Archives: pandemic
Avian Flu Diary: EID Journal: Zika’s Evolution And Spread To The Western Hemisphere
Uganda virus expert says Zika adapting to humansA top scientist at the Uganda-based facility that first identified the Zika virus has told Anadolu Agency that the bug is multiplying and becoming more adaptable to humans.Dr. Julius Lutwama, senior principal research officer at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, said the virus outbreak in the Americas can only be reduced by supportive treatment and through controlling disease-carrying mosquitoes.“There are two strains of the Zika virus, which include the African Zika virus and the Asian strain, which are slightly different,” he said.“The strain that is causing problems in the Americas comes from Asia, went to Micronesia, Polynesia and moved to South America.”
Source: Avian Flu Diary: EID Journal: Zika’s Evolution And Spread To The Western Hemisphere
First Zika test developed in Germany
How Scared Should You Be About Zika? – The New York Times
The point is, we should have anticipated that the large increase in mosquitoes would create a major health crisis. Just as we should have anticipated that a deadly hemorrhagic disease caused by the Ebola virus would emerge one day from the remote forests and threaten the vast slums of the rapidly growing megacities of Africa. We should now anticipate that the MERS virus will result in more deadly outbreaks outside of the Arabian Peninsula, as it did in Seoul, South Korea. We should anticipate that viruses such as Venezuelan equine encephalitis may spread from their jungle homes and be even more deadly than Zika.
Even more than these viruses, we should be afraid of a planet-wide catastrophe caused by influenza. The best way to avert a pandemic is to develop a game-changing universal influenza vaccine. All these crises are largely predictable and we can do much in advance to lessen the effects and diminish the spread. And believe me, the cost of acting now will be infinitely less than the cost of not acting in the long run.
Source: How Scared Should You Be About Zika? – The New York Times
How the Zika Virus Is Affecting Travel – The New York Times
The travel industry is beginning to react as vacationers rethink their trips amid growing concern over the Zika virus, the mosquito-borne disease that experts say is possibly linked to microcephaly in babies. The spread of the virus has led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to warn pregnant women and those planning to get pregnant against travel to affected areas, including popular Caribbean tourist destinations like Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands and Barbados as well as areas in Latin American countries like Mexico, Brazil and Panama.As a result, domestic air carriers that have just finished adjusting passenger itineraries in the wake of a heavy winter storm in the Northeast are now doing so for sunnier destinations.
Source: How the Zika Virus Is Affecting Travel – The New York Times
VDU’s blog: Zika virus disease samples…don’t pass urine (by)..
Urine has been shown to be positive for ZIKV RNA beyond 5 days, sometimes when blood is completely negative by highly sensitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods.[1,2,3] Saliva has also been of use,[4] but urine seems to outperform it for PCR purposes
Source: VDU’s blog: Zika virus disease samples…don’t pass urine (by)..
No need to panic about the Zika virus | Sci-Tech | DW.COM | 27.01.2016
For a healthy grown-up who isn’t pregnant, Zika doesn’t pose much of a threat. Common symptoms include fever, joint ache and a rash with small red spots. The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) puts it pretty clearly: “The illness is usually mild… Severe disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon. Deaths are rare.”Compare that to Ebola, which comes with vomiting and unexplained bleeding and killed more than 11,300 people in the recent West-Africa outbreak, and you’ll see that Zika isn’t quite that bad.Some tourists have already brought the virus back to their European home countries from vacation without any major consequences. According to the news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa), there have been ten cases reported in Germany since 2013.The dpa also mentions four cases in Italy, three in Great Britain and two in Spain, though those numbers are probably incorrect, since there’s no international protocol for reporting and recording the virus, Schmidt-Chanasit said. More people could have been infected without ever knowing: the CDC reports that only one in five people infected with the virus actually become ill.Dangerous birth defect In hospitals like this one in Recife, Brazil, more and more babies are born with mircrocephalyAll that is not to say that Zika is completely harmless. The virus has been connected to an exceptional high number of babies born with microcephaly in Brazil. In the most recent Zika outbreak, around 4,000 newborns were diagnosed with the birth defect. Their skulls are smaller than those of healthy babies, which leads to brain damage.
Source: No need to panic about the Zika virus | Sci-Tech | DW.COM | 27.01.2016
WHO | Zika virus infection – Dominican Republic
Of the 10 cases, 8 are locally-acquired and 2 imported from El Salvador. The cases are from Distrito Nacional, and the municipalities of Santo Domingo Norte, Jimani-Independencia and Santa Cruz-Barahona. While 8 of the 10 cases are aged 15 to 57 years old, the remaining 2 cases are children under five years old. Onset of symptoms ranges from 3 to 18 January. All cases presented fever and rash; 8 of the 10 cases had conjunctivitis, 6 of the 10 cases experienced malaises, headache and arthralgia; and, 5 of the 10 cases reported myalgia.
Avian Flu Diary: CDC Adds Two Destinations To Zika Travel Advisory
Twelve days ago the CDC issued a Level-II travel advisory for 14 countries and territories over the Zika Virus threat, asking pregnant women to considered postponing travel to regions that were affected. Seven days later they added 8 additional countries and/or territories. Last night two more travel destinations were added to the list (United States Virgin Islands and Dominican Republic) both having recently reported confirmed local transmission of the virus. It should be noted that while evidence of a tentative link between the introduction of Zika to the Americas and the sharp rise in microcephalic births in Brazil continues to grow, a causal link has yet to be established. Doing so could take months. Given the potentially dire outcome of maternal infection, the CDC is acting out of an abundance of caution and is recommending that pregnant women avoid travel to these affected regions until more is known.
Source: Avian Flu Diary: CDC Adds Two Destinations To Zika Travel Advisory
With Carnival looming, Zika virus outbreak heaps pressure on Brazil


The Zika virus is rampant in Latin America. It is an infection that can cause deadly birth defects in fetuses. Health authorities in Rio are taking drastic steps to prevent the virus from spreading during Carnival.
Source: With Carnival looming, Zika virus outbreak heaps pressure on Brazil






You must be logged in to post a comment.