PAHO says Zika virus outbreak continues a year after global emergency
WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) — The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) says experts are still grappling to understand the mosquito borne Zika virus even as the world marks one year since a global Public Health Emergency was declared due to the rapid spread of the virus from Brazil to 75 other countries, including most in the Caribbean and Latin America.
PAHO says experts are exploring ways to improve the response to outbreaks, including research on integrated management of the mosquitos that transmit the disease. According to PAHO’s latest update, 48 countries and territories in the Americas have confirmed transmission of Zika virus disease through mosquitoes since 2015 and five countries in the Americas have reported sexually transmitted Zika cases. To date 200,000 cases have been confirmed, more than half from Brazil, were 2,618 children born with confirmed congenital syndrome associated with Zika virus infection. Globally, the risk assessment of Zika has not changed, and the virus continues to spread geographically to areas where competent vectors are present, PAHO said. “Although a decline in cases of Zika infection has been reported in some countries, or in some parts of countries, vigilance needs to remain high,” the latest WHO assessment notes. Dr Sylvain Aldighieri, PAHO’s Incident Manager for Zika, said that, when clusters of babies with microcephaly and cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome were reported at the same time and place as Zika virus outbreaks during the last months of 2015, PAHO published a series of alerts starting in December 2015. “After PAHO mounted a robust regional response to the outbreak, a turning point came in January 2016 as research provided the first evidence regarding the link between Zika and microcephaly in babies born in Northeast Brazil,” he said. Globally, the risk assessment of Zika has not changed, and the virus continues to spread geographically to areas where competent vectors are present, PAHO said. PAHO said this led to the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on February 1, 2016, adding that Zika spread rapidly not only through the Americas but also to other regions.
(jamaicaobserver)