Update:
In an action it has taken only three times before, the World Health Organization today designated the rapidly spreading Zika virus an international public health emergency — “a rare move that signals the seriousness of the outbreak and gives countries powerful new tools to fight it,” says the New York Times.
Read more here.
Original Post:
Some readers may remember the Defense Department’s significant contributions* to help contain the historic outbreak of the Ebola virus disease in West Africa in 2014 and 2015.
The Defense Department played a crucial role not only by providing engineering and logistics support, direct and indirect medical and health care support “on the ground,” but also “back home” in the form of medical research and the development of Ebola vaccine and diagnostics.
Some of the DoD agencies involved in these efforts were, and are, the U.S. Army Military Research Institute on Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), the Navy and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and several others.
For example, from a February 2015 DoD news release:
USAMRIID and DTRA contributed to developing and funding several candidate drugs -– including ZMapp and TKM Ebola — to treat patients infected with the disease. Some already have been used in patients under compassionate use in the United States, Western Europe and Africa.
TKM-Ebola was tested in nonhuman primates and has shown evidence of activity against Ebola. This candidate drug is produced by the Canadian company Tekmira Inc. under a contract from the DoD Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense.
Today, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), as the Zika virus is “spreading explosively” and “the level of alarm is extremely high, as is the level of uncertainty,” Defense Department experts who have experience working with the Zika virus have been asked to once again step in and “support the Department of Health and Human Services in its efforts related to the mosquito-borne disease.”
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook, told defense reporters, “This is an area where the DoD has done some research in the past…and I think some of that expertise will be brought to this effort. We’ll be supporting HHS in whatever way we can.”
More from the DoD News, Defense Media Activity:
“Travelers to the United States from countries where mosquitoes carry the virus could bring the disease here, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a travel alert for people traveling to regions and countries where Zika virus transmission is ongoing: Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.
Local transmission of Zika virus has not been identified in the continental United States, CDC officials said, but limited local transmission, rather than widespread transmission, of Zika could occur.
In May, the Pan American Health Organization issued an alert about the first confirmed Zika virus infection in Brazil. That outbreak, CDC officials said, led to reports of Guillain-Barre syndrome and women giving birth to babies with birth defects and having “poor pregnancy outcomes.”
At the White House, the experts briefed Obama on factors that could affect the potential spread of Zika virus in the United States, and on travel advisories and guidance for domestic health care providers who care for pregnant women.
President Barack Obama convenes a meeting on the Zika virus in the Situation Room of the White House, Jan. 26, 2016. White House photo by Pete Souza
During the meeting, Obama emphasized the need to accelerate research efforts to make better diagnostic tests available, to develop vaccines and therapeutics, and to make sure that all Americans have information about Zika virus and steps they can take to protect themselves from infection.
According to CNN, ‘Some 80% of those infected with the Zika virus never know they have it. But there are major worries about the dangers pregnant women and their babies face.”
Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO’s director-general, said that, where the virus has arrived, there’s been a corresponding “steep increase in the birth of babies with abnormally small heads and in cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome.” Having small heads can cause severe developmental issues and sometimes death. Guillain-Barre is a rare autoimmune disorder that can lead to life-threatening paralysis.
Dr. Bruce Aylward, another WHO leader, cautioned that no definitive link has been established but said there’s legitimate reason to be concerned.
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* To read about some of the accomplishments by our military in the successful fight against Ebola, please click here.
Lead photo: Dr. John M. Dye Jr., Viral Immunology branch chief, works in the laboratory at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, Maryland. Dye is leading a team that is conducting a study with nonhuman primates involving the experimental drug ZMapp, an experimental treatment for Ebola patients. USAMRIID photo
Background image: www.shutterstock.com
