Thursday, April 14, 2016
Monday, April 11, 2016
Brazilian scientists find new Zika-linked brain disorder in adults
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Scientists in Brazil have uncovered a new brain disorder associated with Zika infections in adults: an autoimmune syndrome called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, or ADEM, that attacks the brain and spinal cord.
Zika has already been linked with the autoimmune disorder Guillain-Barre syndrome, which attacks peripheral nerves outside the brain and spinal cord, causing temporary paralysis that can in some cases require patients to rely on respirators for breathing.
The new discovery now shows Zika may provoke an immune attack on the central nervous system as well.
Complete story at Reuters
Complete story at Reuters
Sunday, April 3, 2016
Brazil Confiscates Abortion Pills From Pregnant Women Exposed To Zika
In this Feb. 12, 2016 photo a baby born with microcephaly is examined by a neurologist in Campina Grande in Paraiba state, Brazil. CREDIT: AP PHOTO, FELIPE DANA
“I contacted Zika four days ago. I just found out I’m about six weeks pregnant. I have a son I love dearly. I love children. But I don’t believe it is a wise decision to keep a baby who will suffer. I need an abortion. I don’t know who to turn to. Please help me ASAP.”
This plea comes from one of the 20,000 emails sent by Latin American women to Women on Web, the international abortion advocacy organization that’s been sending free abortion pills to Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and other Zika-infected countries where abortion is illegal or nearly impossible to access. At least, until recently.
Women on Web discovered that officials have confiscated almost all of the pills shipped to Brazil, where more than 4,000 women have given birth to babies born with shrunken skulls — a condition linked to the Zika virus. Forced to stop all further shipments to the country, staff are struggling to find other ways to get the medication to concerned women.
3D Structure Revealed: Scientists Finally Know What Zika Virus Looks Like
The incredible image above is the 3D structure of the Zika virus, which has only just been revealed. The finding could help scientists determine how the virus is transmitted and, hopefully, how to prevent infection.
The report, published today in Science, describes the virus as a spherical structure resembling that of the dengue virus and other viruses in its genus, known as "flaviviruses." But the 3D rendition also reveals some important differences. For example, scientists found the virus’ outer shell is slightly different from that of other viruses. This could help researchers attack the virus as a whole, or at the very least, prevent it from attaching to human cells.
Saturday, April 2, 2016
Zika and Pregnancy: What you should know
Zika virus disease (Zika) spreads to people mainly through the bite by two species of infected mosquitoes, one of which is more likely to transmit Zika. In past outbreaks, most people have not gotten sick, so people may not even know they are infected. Based on current knowledge, the greatest risk for complications from Zika is to a pregnant woman’s fetus. If a pregnant woman is infected with Zika, she can pass the virus to her fetus. Zika has been linked to cases of microcephaly, a serious birth defect, and is a sign that the baby is born with a smaller brain, which can result in medical problems and impaired development. Researchers are working to understand more about how Zika affects pregnant women and fetuses.
To protect the pregnancy, couples can:
- Check CDC travel guidance; pregnant women should avoid travel to any area with Zika.www.cdc.gov/travel/page/zika-travel-information.
- Talk to her doctor or other healthcare provider first, if she must travel to an area with Zika.
- Prevent mosquito bites, including covering up arms and legs and using EPA-registered insect repellent, which is safe to use during pregnancy.
- Use latex condoms, the right way, every time or choose not to have any type of sex if the male partner has been in an area with Zika during the pregnancy.
Friday, April 1, 2016
WHO: Evidence Link Zikavirus and Microcephaly
Scientists are now 100% convinced there is a link between the Zika virus and the birth of babies with small skulls, microcephaly. There is also a proof for a link between Zika and the Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a muscle disease.
The World Health Organization (WHO) writes this in their newest situation report.
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Military Times: Meet the U.S. military super scientists fighting to destroy the Zika virus
While the U.S. Navy is better known for its role in protecting Americans from enemies abroad, its scientists also work in labs throughout the world, combatting an unseen enemy: infectious disease.
And now, U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit 6, based in Lima, Peru, has set its sights on the Zika virus — declared by the World Health Organization to be a public health emergency.
Zika, which is spread by mosquitos, was once thought to be a minor health threat because its symptoms were typically mild and lasted about a week. However, scientists increasingly believe there is a link between Zika infections in pregnant women and microcephaly in newborns, where the child’s head is unusually small due to abnormal brain development.
Zika, a virus transmitted through mosquito bites, is affecting multiple countries in Latin America, and is expected to spread to the U.S.
The Lima-based unit, known in Navy lingo as NAMRU-6, was officially established in 2011, but has roots going back to 1978, when a Peruvian Navy official asked the United States to set up a lab to assist Peru in studying tropical medicine and diseases. By 1983, a research unit had been established to study diseases and search for cures, benefitting both countries. The unit also has labs in Puerto Maldonado and Iquitos, along the Amazon River.
Read the rest of the story at Military Times
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Reuters: Mosquitoes' rapid spread poses threat beyond Zika
As the world focuses on Zika's rapid advance in the Americas, experts warn the virus that originated in Africa is just one of a growing number of continent-jumping diseases carried by mosquitoes threatening swathes of humanity.
The battle against the insects on the streets of Brazil is the latest in an ancient war between humankind and the Culicidae, or mosquito, family which the pests frequently win.
Today, mosquito invaders are turning up with increasing regularity from Washington DC to Strasbourg, challenging the notion that the diseases they carry will remain confined to the tropics, scientists documenting the cases told Reuters.
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Sexual transmission of Zika virus more common than previously thought: WHO
GENEVA — The World Health Organization says reports from several countries suggest that sexual transmission of the Zika virus is more common than previously thought.After a meeting of its emergency committee on Tuesday, the U.N. health agency also said there is increasing evidence that a spike in disturbing birth defects is caused by Zika, which is mostly spread by mosquito bites.Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said “reports and investigations in several countries strongly suggest that sexual transmission of the virus is more common than previously assumed.”The agency last month said the outbreak in the Americas constitutes a global emergency.
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
The Verge: Zika virus can cause severe neurological disorder, scientists say
Scientists say they’ve confirmed that the Zika virus can cause Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare but severe neurological disorder that kills 5 percent of people who develop it. Authorities in countries with a Zika outbreak should make sure they have enough intensive care beds to deal with an increase of patients with Guillain-Barré.
In a 2013 outbreak, 32,000 people were assessed for a suspected Zika infection in
French Polynesia. That’s where today’s study subjects came from. Almost all 42 patients with Guillain-Barré had signs of a recent Zika infection in their blood. In addition, 37 of those patients said that they had symptoms of Zika six days before they experienced symptoms of Guillain-Barré. The results suggest that Zika should be added to the list of infectious pathogens that can cause Guillain-Barré, the researchers write in The Lancet.
"Until now, everything was anecdotal," says Lee Norman, an intelligence officer in disaster medicine planning in the United States Army National Guard, who didn’t work on the study. This is "the first time that I've had confidence that there’s a definitive link between Zika and Guillain-Barré syndrome."
Read the rest of the story at The Verge
Monday, February 22, 2016
If condoms are OK for Zika, why not Aids, Pope Francis?
Barbara Ellen, op-ed in The Guardian:
Pope Francis has indicated that the Catholic church is prepared to condoneartificial contraception to avoid pregnancy in response to the Zika virus, believed to be spread primarily by mosquitoes (though also possibly by sexual contact). Zika is suspected to be the cause of thousands of cases of microcephaly (unusually small heads) and other severe birth abnormalities and conditions, leading desperate women to rush to terminate pregnancies in heavily affected areas such as South America. Many women affected by Zika have been begging for help from outside aid agencies.
Read the rest of this opinion
Friday, February 19, 2016
First Zika virus case confirmed in North Carolina
RALEIGH (WTVD) --
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said Friday that a state resident who has recently travelled outside of the country has been confirmed to have the Zika virus.It's the first confirmed case of Zika in North Carolina. Officials said the person was in a country where there is active Zika virus transmission.
Full story at ABC11
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Why People Want to Believe the Zika Virus Is a Conspiracy
Look at today’s Internet with the right lens, and you can watch a conspiracy theory being born: While scientists are increasingly convinced that Zika virus is behind an uptick of the birth defect microcephaly in Brazil, an Argentinian activist group Physicians in the Crop-Sprayed Towns has blamed—perhaps not surprisingly—spraying.
In this case, the activists are blaming insect killers called larvicides. Bonus conspiracy points! The larvicide vaguely has to do with ag-chem company (and perpetual badguy) Monsanto.
The group’s speculation spread. Small online news sites covered it over the weekend, and then on Tuesday, the Washington Post published a story. Here is a secret about journalism: Headlines that are questions are for butt-covering. Case in point: “Could chemicals—rather than the Zika virus—be to blame for birth defects in Brazil?”
More bonus points! A celebrity tweeted it out.
https://twitter.com/Alyssa_Milano/status/699969705264545792
Look, it’s almost certainly not a Monsanto larvicide hurting kids. But the fear is understandable.
Read the rest of the story at Wired
The Guardian: Pope suggests contraception can be condoned in Zika crisis
Pope Francis has indicated that pregnant women exposed to the Zika virus may be permitted to use contraception to avoid pregnancy, in a departure from Catholic teaching.
However he reiterated the church’s staunch opposition to abortion, saying it was a crime and “absolute evil”.
His comments came as women in South America frantically try to terminate pregnancies for fear of giving birth to babies with microcephaly, which gives them unusually small heads.
Speaking to reporters on the papal plane as he returned to Rome after a visit to Mexico, Francis obliquely suggested that artificial contraception could be used in extreme situations to avoid pregnancy.
Read the story at The GuardianTuesday, February 16, 2016
Podcast: On the Media - The Zika Effect
The threat of the Zika virus has been covered extensively, but the reality is still largely unknown. A look away from the panicked headlines at what we know and don't know about the virus, as well as how Zika serves as a window into global questions surrounding climate change and reproductive rights.
The podcast of On The Media is entirely about The Zika Effect.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Fish, frogs and toads are now warriors in Zika battle
SAN DIEGO, El Salvador (AFP) - With larva-chomping fish and genetically modified insects, Latin Americans are deploying legions of little helpers to destroy mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus in the world's latest mass health scare.
Scientists are devising numerous ways to try and stamp out the mosquitoes whose bites spread the virus, which they suspect can cause brain damage in babies and paralysis in adults.
Some want to wipe out baby mosquito larvae in standing water where the insects breed. Others propose to zap the male mosquitoes' privates with radiation to make them impotent.
Still others just want a plain old toad in their home to gobble any mosquitoes that buzz in.
Read the rest of the story
Monday, February 8, 2016
NY Times: Obama to Ask Congress for $1.8 Billion to Combat Zika Virus
President Obama will request more than $1.8 billion in emergency funding from Congress to fight the Zika virus, which has spread to 26 countries and territories in the Western Hemisphere, though not to the United States.
The money would go toward expanding programs that control mosquitoes, which transmit the virus, as well as research into vaccines and new public education programs, particularly for pregnant women, the president said in an interview Monday on "CBS This Morning."
Rest of the story at New York Times
Friday, February 5, 2016
AP: Zika virus found in saliva, urine samples, Brazil researcher says
The head of a top Brazilian health research institute says its scientists have discovered the presence of active Zika virus in urine and saliva samples.
Paulo Gadelha says that the virus's ability to infect other people through the two body fluids requires further study.
However he says that the discovery calls for special precaution to be taken with pregnant women. Brazilian researchers have pointed to a suspected link between pregnant women's infection with the virus and a rare birth defect in babies.
Gadelha says the discovery does not yet merit any additional health recommendation
He spoke Friday at a press conference in Rio de Janeiro.
Read on at AP
Thursday, February 4, 2016
BBC: Zika virus infection 'through sex' reported in US
A rare case of the Zika virus being transmitted through sex, not a mosquito bite, has been reported in the US.
A patient infected in Dallas, Texas, is likely to have been infected by sexual contact, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) told the BBC.
The person had not travelled to infected areas but their partner had returned from Venezuela.
Read the story at BBC
Monday, February 1, 2016
Zika virus: World Health Organisation declares public health emergency
The World Health Organisation has declared a “public health emergency of international concern” due to the apparent link of the Zika virus to a surge in serious birth defects in South America.
WHO chief Margaret Chan said the link between the Zika virus and microcephaly was “strongly suspected but not yet scientifically proven.”
“After a review of the evidence, the committee advised that the clusters of microcephaly and other neurological complications constitute an extraordinary event and public health threat to other parts of the world,” Chan said.
She said an international coordinated response was necessary, although there was no reason to introduce restrictions on travel or trade. Mosquito control was the top concern, she said.
Zika virus could be bigger global health threat than Ebola, say health experts
Read more
The designation was recommended by a committee of independent experts, and should help fast-track international action and research priorities.
Chan advised pregnant women to take measures to protect themselves.
“If you can delay travel and it does not affect your other family commitments, it is something they can consider,” she said. “If they need to travel, they can get advice from their physician and take personal protective measures, like wearing long sleeves and shirts and pants and use mosquito repellent."
The Guardian
The WHO just declared a public health emergency related to Zika virus
Zika, a virus that barely bothered humans until last year, has been moving. First, it made its way from Africa to a series of tiny islands in Micronesia. Then it bounced through the Pacific Ocean to Easter Island, off the coast of Chile. From there, it was on to Brazil. Now Zika has infected people in more than 20 countries in Central and South America and the Caribbean.
The mosquito-borne virus doesn't seem to harm most of its victims. But there's increasing evidence that it can cause serious damage to the brains of fetuses and, in rare instances, devastating neurological problems in adults.
Read more at VOX.com
Zika crisis: World Health Organization in emergency talks
An emergency meeting of the World Health Organization is being held to discuss the "explosive" spread of the Zika virus.
The meeting in Geneva will decide whether to declare a global emergency.
WHO officials have described Zika as moving "from a mild threat to one of alarming proportions".
Most cases will have no symptoms but the virus has been linked to brain abnormalities in thousands of babies in Brazil.
Meanwhile in the country, officials have been given permission to break into properties that could be harbouring mosquito breeding grounds.
They will be able to force entry when the place is abandoned or when nobody is there to give access to the house.
BBC about the Zika health crisis
USA Today: WHO to hold emergency meeting Monday on Zika virus
The World Health Organization will hold an emergency meeting Monday to find ways to battle the Zika virus, which is linked to birth defects and "spreading explosively" through the Americas.
The WHO could classify the Zika outbreak now in 25 countries and territories as a "public health emergency of international concern," deserving of a coordinated global response.
An emergency declaration is "similar to a global Amber Alert for public health," Susan Kim, deputy director of Georgetown University's O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law in Washington, said Sunday. "An emergency declaration by WHO is a spotlight on the issue, telling the world that this is something the world needs to pay attention to."
Rest of the story at USA Today
Saturday, January 30, 2016
Yahoo! News: Colombia has more than 2,000 Zika cases in pregnant women
Bogota (AFP) - Colombia announced Saturday that more than 2,000 pregnant women in the South American country have been infected with the Zika virus, which is suspected of causing brain damage in newborns.
The National Health Institute reported that Colombia now has 20,297 cases of Zika infection, including 2,116 in pregnant women.
The latest numbers, reported in the institute's epidemiological bulletin, would make Colombia the second most affected country in the region, after Brazil.
Read more at Yahoo! News
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Wired: Zika Virus May Push Latin America to Loosen Abortion Bans
A woman walks up a staircase through a fumigation cloud in Soyapango, El Salvador, on January 21, 2016, as the country tries to prevent the spread of the Zika virus by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. MARVIN RECINOS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
With no vaccine and no cure, and without even a reliable diagnosis, doctors are at a loss for how to protect their patients from the Zika virus. In the past year, the mosquito-borne disease has spread throughout Latin America, sparking panic because of a possible link to microcephaly—babies born with abnormally small brains. Without more information, medical advice so far has boiled down to this: Don’t get pregnant. So say official guidelines from Brazil, Colombia, and Honduras. El Salvador has gone so far as to recommend women do not get pregnant until 2018.
But most of these Latin American countries are also Catholic, so access to birth control is often poor and abortion is flat-out banned. “This kind of recommendation that women should avoid pregnancy is not realistic,” says Beatriz Galli, a Brazil-based policy advisor for the reproductive health organization Ipas. “How can they put all the burden of this situation on the women?”
In Brazil, where Zika has hit the hardest, birth control is available—though poor and rural women can still get left out. One report estimates that unplanned pregnancies make up over half of all births in the country. And abortion is illegal, except in cases of rape and certain medical conditions. A raft of impending legislation in Brazil’s conservative-held congress may make it harder to get abortions even in those exempted cases.
Now throw Zika into that. Scientists still haven’t confirmed the link to microcephaly, but Brazilian researchers have confirmed the virus can jump through the placenta from mother to fetus. Circumstantially, the number of of microcephaly cases has gone up 20 fold since Zika first reached Brazil. In the face of fear and incomplete information, women will have to figure out how to protect themselves and their children.
Read the rest at Wired.com
NY Times: 11 Short Answers to Hard Questions About Zika Virus
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned pregnant women against travel to several countries in the Caribbean and Latin America where the Zika virus is spreading. Infection with the virus appears to be linked to the development of unusually small heads and brain damage in newborns. Some pregnant women who have been to these regions should be tested for the infection, the agency also says. Here are some answers and advice about the outbreak.
11 questions and 11 answers about Zika
BBC: Zika virus could become 'explosive pandemic'
US scientists have urged the World Health Organisation to take urgent action over the Zika virus, which they say has "explosive pandemic potential".
Writing in a US medical journal, they called on the WHO to heed lessons from the Ebola outbreak and convene an emergency committee of disease experts.
They said a vaccine might be ready for testing in two years but it could be a decade before it is publicly available.
Zika, linked to shrunken brains in children, has caused panic in Brazil.
Thousands of people have been infected there and it has spread to some 20 countries.
Would it be wrong to eradicate mosquitoes?
The Brazilian President, Dilma Roussef, has urged Latin America to unite in combating the virus.
She told a summit in Ecuador that sharing knowledge about the disease was the only way that it would be beaten. A meeting of regional health ministers has been called for next week.
Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Daniel R Lucey and Lawrence O Gostin say the WHO's failure to act early in the recent Ebola crisis probably cost thousands of lives.
They warn that a similar catastrophe could unfold if swift action is not taken over the Zika virus.
Read the rest at BBC.co.uk
Zika virus Fact sheet by World Health Organisation
Zika virus
Key facts
- Zika virus disease is caused by a virus transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes.
- People with Zika virus disease usually have a mild fever, skin rash (exanthema) and conjunctivitis. These symptoms normally last for 2-7 days.
- There is no specific treatment or vaccine currently available.
- The best form of prevention is protection against mosquito bites.
- The virus is known to circulate in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific.
The Guardian: Zika virus spreading 'explosively', says World Health Organisation
The World Health Organisation has convened an emergency committee to discuss the “explosive” spread of the Zika virus, which has been linked to thousands of birth defects in Latin America.
“Last year the disease was detected in the Americas, where it is spreading explosively,” Margaret Chan, the WHO director general, said at a special briefing in Geneva. It was “deeply concerning” that the virus has now been detected in more than 20 countries in the Americas, she added.
The spread of the virus has prompted governments across the world to advise pregnant women against going to the areas where it has been detected. There is no vaccine or cure for Zika, which has been linked to microcephaly, a serious condition that can cause lifelong developmental problems.
Chan said: “The level of alarm is extremely high. Arrival of the virus in some cases has been associated with a steep increase in the birth of babies with abnormally small heads.”
A new blog about the Zika virus
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