UPDATE II:
For a heartbreaking, yet touching and inspirational story of a mother (and a father) with two children suffering from microcephaly, please click here, but have your handkerchief handy.
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UPDATE I:
A reader commenting on the alarmism which sometimes surrounded the Ebola crisis, makes a potential connection between the Zika virus outbreak and the “abortion issue.”
As so happens, abortion has indeed become an issue in the rapidly spreading Zika epidemic in Brazil.
While the scientific link between Zika and infant brain damage has not yet been proven, “The surging medical reports of babies being born with unusually small heads during the Zika epidemic in Brazil are igniting a fierce debate over the country’s abortion laws, which make the procedure illegal under most circumstances,” says the New York Times.
The Times:
Prominent legal scholars in Brasília, the capital, are preparing a case to go before Brazil’s highest court, arguing that pregnant women should be permitted to have abortions when their fetuses are found to have abnormally small heads, a condition known as microcephaly that Brazilian researchers say is linked to the virus.
A judge in central Brazil has taken the rare step of publicly proclaiming that he will allow women to have legal abortions in cases of microcephaly, preparing the way for a fight over the issue in parts of the country’s labyrinthine legal system.
And here in Recife, the Brazilian city hit hardest by the increase in microcephaly and the brain damage that often comes with it, abortion rights activists are seizing on the crisis to counter conservative lawmakers who have long wanted to make Brazil’s abortion laws — already among the most stringent in Latin America — more restrictive.
Read more here:
Original Post:
Last month, after no new cases of Ebola were reported in Liberia, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an end to the “deadliest Ebola outbreak ever,” an epidemic that claimed more than 11,300 lives over two years in six countries — including in the U.S. — and one where “[n]early 23,000 children lost at least one parent or caregiver to the disease.”
Last week, the same organization, in an action it has taken only three times before, designated the rapidly spreading Zika virus an international public health emergency. The New York Times called it “a rare move that signals the seriousness of the outbreak and gives countries powerful new tools to fight it.”
Aware of the fact that many — rightly or wrongly — called the media coverage of the Ebola crisis unnecessary hysteria, “alarmist, stoking panic,” etc., this author will attempt to tone down the sensationalism and report on what are hopefully facts, on information from what are deemed to be reliable sources and on common sense developments and warnings — albeit even those may be viewed by some as “alarmist.”
While at first it was reported that the virus was transmitted “primarily” by mosquitoes, Dallas health officials have now reported that “a local resident was infected with the Zika virus by having sex with a person who had contracted the disease while traveling in Venezuela,” according to the New York Times. Also, while dozens of other Zika cases have surfaced in the United States of people who became infected with the mosquito-borne virus while traveling to Zika-affected countries, this case marks the first report in the current outbreak of someone being infected without leaving the United States, says the Times
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has now issued new recommendations urging the use of condoms to prevent the spread of the virus and the American Red Cross has appealed to prospective blood donors “who have visited Zika outbreak zones to wait at least 28 days before giving blood.” However, the Times adds, the risk of transmitting the virus through blood donations remains “extremely” low in the continental United States.
More from the CDC, via the Times:
The CDC is now saying that the best way to avoid Zika virus infection is to prevent mosquito bites and for sexual partners to wear condoms to prevent sexually transmitted infections.
CDC said it will issue guidance in the coming days on prevention of sexual transmission of Zika virus, with a focus on the male sexual partners of women who are or who may be pregnant.
Until more is known, the agency said, the CDC continues to recommend that women and women trying to become pregnant postpone travel to the areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing. Pregnant women who live in or travel to one of these areas should talk to their doctor or other health-care professional first and strictly follow steps to avoid mosquito bites during the trip.
Pregnant women should also avoid exposure to semen from someone who has been exposed to Zika virus, the agency said. Women trying to become pregnant should consult with their health-care professional if their partner has had exposure to Zika virus.
The possibility of transmission of the Zika virus through sexual contact has been speculated for several years now. Read more about this aspect here.
In related developments:
The Military Times reports that the Defense Department will offer volunteer relocation to pregnant family members of active-duty personnel and civilian DoD employees assigned to areas affected by the Zika virus.
As mentioned here, several DoD organizations, now including the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and Naval Medical Research units are stepping up efforts to “develop vaccines, diagnostic tests and treatments for Zika and related viruses, including dengue and chikungunya,” according to the Military Times and DoD officials.
Additionally, according to the Military Times:
The Defense Department has maintained a robust tropical disease research program since the Spanish American War, with interest in mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue as well as rare illnesses that have no cure, like Ebola and Marburg virus.
Navy Capt. Kyle Petersen, a USUHS professor who recently commanded Naval Medical Research Unit 6 in Lima, Peru, said the Pentagon’s interest in “neglected tropical diseases” is important for military readiness.
“DoD traditionally targets [these diseases] that aren’t of high interest to pharmaceutical companies because our troops go into tropical countries. We want to make sure they can do their jobs, whether it’s for a humanitarian mission or operations,” Petersen said.
The New York Times reports that health officials in Australia have confirmed two cases of the Zika virus in residents who most likely were infected on a visit to Haiti and that officials also warned pregnant women not to travel to areas where transmission rates are high, like the Caribbean.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Zika fears are prompting travelers to cancel travel plans to Brazil, a development that could negatively affect this summer’s Olympics slated to be held in Brazil.
The Journal also reports that while several drug companies are beginning “early-stage research” to develop a vaccine against Zika, it might be years before any vaccine reaches the market.
Some of the drug companies involved in the research are the French drug maker Sanofi SA, U.S. biotech company NewLink Genetics, South Korean GeneOne Life in a joint research project with U.S. biotech Inovio Pharmaceuticals and others, including the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Lead image: www.shutterstock.com
