Zika virus may spread to Africa, warns WHO
World body declares global health emergency over bug linked to birth defects
THE ZIKA virus linked to a microcephaly outbreak in Latin America could spread to Africa and Asia, the continents with the world’s highest birth rates, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned as it launched a global response unit against the new emergency.
The WHO on Monday declared an international public health emergency due to Zika’s link to thousands of recent birth defects in Brazil.
“We’ve now set up a global response unit which brings together all people across WHO, in headquarters, in the regions, to deal with a formal response using all the lessons we’ve learned from the Ebola crisis,” said Anthony Costello, WHO director for maternal, child and adolescent health.
“We are worried this could also spread back to other areas of the world where the population may not be immune,” he said.
“And we know that the mosquitoes that carry Zika virus – if that association is confirmed – are present… through Africa, parts of southern Europe and many parts of Asia, particularly South Asia.”
Meanwhile, travel insurance sales for trips to Latin America have surged as tourists consider scrapping their plans to avoid the rapidly spreading Zika virus, one of the top US providers, RoamRight, said on Monday.
The Maryland-based company said revenue jumped 81 percent last month from a year ago for its “Cancel For Any Reason” policy covering trips to Zika-impacted areas in the Americas.
The rise provides an early insight into how traveller patterns are changing because of the mosquito-borne virus, even as airlines and hotel chains say it is too soon to tell whether Zika has dented bookings.
Top WHO official Costello said the global health organisation was drafting “good guidelines” for pregnant women and mustering experts to work on a definition of microcephaly including a standardised measurement of baby heads.
“We believe the association is guilty until proven innocent,” he said, referring to the connection drawn in Brazil between the Zika virus and microcephaly, a condition where babies are born with abnormally small heads.
“Mass community engagement” in areas with the mosquitoes and their breeding grounds, and rapid development of diagnostic tools are essential to curbing the virus, as a vaccine may be years away, said Costello.
Drug giant Sanofi has launched a project to develop a vaccine against Zika.
In the travel industry, top US airlines are currently promising refunds for tickets to Latin America, although American Airlines Group has limited the offer to pregnant travellers and their companions.
Linda Fallon, head of RoamRight, said tourists were turning to insurance rather than scrapping plans because they were not yet sure how the virus would impact them. – Reuters
HEALTH authorities have cautioned pregnant women who have to travel to countries affected by the Zika virus to either avoid it or postpone their trips to spare themselves the risk of contracting the disease.
Mark van der Heever, spokesman for the provincial Department of Health, said although no Zika virus cases had been detected in the country, the department had, as a precaution, advised pregnant women to delay travelling to areas with current outbreaks of the Zika virus.
The outbreak of this virus has caused panic around the world, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) cautioning that it was “spreading explosively”.
This week, the WHO International Health Regulations Emergency Committee agreed that the Zika virus outbreak “meets the conditions for a public health emergency of international concern”.
The meeting called for a co-ordinated international response to improve surveillance, detection of infections, congenital malformations and neurological complications, to intensify the control of mosquito populations. The virus, borne by mosquitoes, causes a mild flu-like symptoms and rash in some infected people, and there is no known therapy.
While the virus existed for decades in equatorial zones of Asia and Africa, it was detected in parts of South America.
The virus has infected more than 1 mil- lion people in Brazil. Most worryingly, it has been linked to a condition known as microcephaly – a condition in which newborns are born with small heads and brains.
In Brazil this condition has affected more than 4 000 newborns. A Cape Town doctor and travel specialist, Dr Pete Vincent from Netcare Travel Clinics and the Medicross in Tokai, also cautioned that pregnant travellers should be careful and avoid countries where the Zika virus was endemic.
“Pregnant women should consider postponing non-essential travel to countries where the Zika virus is endemic, as the implications of infection for the unborn child can be devastating,” he said. Where travel could not be avoided, pregnant women should discuss the risks with a travel doctor to provide in-depth advice regarding the necessary precautions. “There are, however, no vaccinations or prophylactic medications available to prevent infection and so it is advisable to protect oneself against the mosquito bites that transmit the virus,” Vincent said. The Department of Health has notified health-care workers about the Zika virus and had introduced indications for testing for returning travellers with symptoms.
Van der Heever said it was important to note that while the Zika virus had not been detected, caution should be practised when it came to mosquito borne diseases.
“It is important to emphasise that the Zika virus has not to date been found further south than Uganda in Africa, and has not been reported from South Africa.
“The vector species, Aedes aegypti is, however, common, particularly in the eastern coastal plain but also in the cities of the inland plateau. “In the urban centres, the mosquito breeds in small collections of water such as discarded tyres and buckets, or the leaf axils of banana trees.
“The virus was not spread from human to human, but it was speculated that numerous introductions of either infected mosquitoes or infected travellers are necessary before a foreign virus could become established in a new area, as the virus needed to be introduced into a capable vector population as well as a host population.
“Even though the possibility of an infected traveller introducing the Zika virus obviously does exist, they don’t pose any risk to the local population,” he said.
The National Institute of Communicable Diseases confirmed there were no reported cases of the Zika virus, but cautioned that “physicians may encounter cases in returning travellers”.