Life in Zika virus epicentre a struggle for afflicted families

It centers around the bogus idea that genetically modified mosquitoes are to blame for the recent Zika outbreak across the Americas.

And the disease is now closer to home than ever before with cases in the state.

Dr Márcio Nehab, a paediatrician and infectious disease specialist at the Fiocruz research institute in Rio de Janeiro said that researchers should focus their efforts on mosquitoes.

He said the agency expects “huge numbers” of infections because of the widespread presence of the mosquitoes that spread Zika and because there is no immunity among the population.

One step some affected areas have tried involves introducing sterile mosquitos into the area to curb their populations and prevent the disease from spreading.

The company said its technique would be less damaging to the environment than killing the bugs through radiation, and added the gene could not be passed on to other species.

Howard Carter, one of the UK’s leading bite protection experts, has claimed the mosquito has been sighted on the Kent Coast and in West Sussex.

All it takes is the right mosquito, under the right conditions, to bite the right person.

When we chatted with Alex Perkins, a Notre Dame biological sciences professor, about the Zika mosquito conspiracy, he told us nothing could be farther from the truth.

“We want to be clear that Zika can not be transmitted through casual contact”, Dr. Robinson said during a conference call with reporters.

‘If anything, we should potentially be looking into using these more’. “All vector control solutions – insecticides, traps, and “sterile” mosquitoes get deployed in areas with a high incidence of disease to help stop the spread of the disease at its source”, he said. “Any disease can be anywhere within a few hours”. Our approach has proven to be more effective than the alternatives with a lower environmental impact’.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos says that since the recent spread of the virus began he has been applying double the bug spray and sporting long sleeves when he goes on his weekend bike ride near his country home down the mountain from mosquito-free Bogota.

While a couple dozen or so Zika cases have been reported nationwide, none so far is believed to have originated here. The GM mosquito project started in 2015.

The move comes as Brazil desperately looks to raise awareness of the virus and encourage people to combat the mosquito.

Symptoms of the Zika virus include fever, joint pain, rash and a headache, but some people show no signs at all.

Alarm is growing about a reported rise in suspected cases of the rare condition, which has been tentatively linked to the rapid spread of the Zika virus through the Americas.

“We advise travellers, particularly pregnant women, to be aware of the areas of ongoing transmission”.

The greater concern is for babies born to mothers infected during their pregnancy.

The birth defect can be caused by factors such as genetics, malnutrition or drugs. It’s proving hard because babies recently born with microcephaly may have been infected with the virus a while ago.

The second case was that of Dr Brain D Foy, an expert in insect-borne diseases at Colorado State University, who unwittingly developed the virus after he travelled to Senegal to collect mosquitos for a study.

The CDC anticipates that local transmission will happen, but thinks it will resemble previous outbreaks of dengue and chikungunya, which have been relatively contained within southeastern USA states.