Brazil minister says no plans to cancel Rio Games
Dr. Vanessa Van Der Linden, the neuro-pediatrician who first recognized the microcephaly crisis in Brazil, examines a 2-month-old baby with microcephaly on January 27, 2016 in Recife, Brazil. This is a condition where infants have abnormally small heads and often have underdeveloped brains.
Olympics organizers in Brazil say they have no plans to cancel the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro due to the Zika outbreak.
“Zika virus in an otherwise healthy person can be anywhere from asymptomatic, a lot of cases due appear to be asymptomatic, to a febrile illness that usually consists of a fairly sudden onset fever, headache, rash and joint pains”, explains Meatherall.
Instead of importing the active ingredient in Exposis from Germany by ship – as it did before the Zika scare – Osler now flies it in by plane. As symptoms found through lab tests have helped in tabbing Zika to some extent, over 1.5 million Brazilians are allegedly infected, with the virus.
The U.S. government has temporarily lowered its count of Zika cases because of a new reporting system. “For us scientists, it’s extremely challenging to understand Zika virus”. Health minister Alejandro Gaviria warned that cases of the Guillain-Barre syndrome have not responded positively to traditional treatments of immunoglobulin. The World Health Organization declared Zika an global health emergency this week, citing a “strongly suspected” relationship between the virus in pregnancy and microcephaly.
Still, some researchers are optimistic, arguing that the urgency of the Zika outbreak is leading to more concentrated research by a greater number of scientists. “Because how can they ask those women to become pregnant but also not offer them first information that is available, but the possibility to stop their pregnancies if they wish?”
US News reported that America and Colombia has recently teamed up to speed up the research for the Zika virus. Brazil researchers hope to develop a treatment that could be tested in humans in a year.
President Barack Obama announced the effort during Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos’ visit to the White House on Thursday.
Brazilian officials believe Zika may be associated with more than 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly since October.
Meanwhile a pregnant woman is among the seven people identified as being infected with the Zika virus in Spain after visiting affected countries.
Gadelha also stressed that the Aedes aegpyti mosquito, which also spreads dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever, remains the virus’ main vector and said the fight against the mosquito should be a top priority.
“The likelihood of this happening soon is close to zero”, says Robert Lanciotti, chief of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s diagnostics laboratory in Fort Collins, Colorado.