Zika a public health emergency?

Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that’s been strongly linked to severe birth defects.

Here are some questions and answers about the virus and the current outbreak. It is a deeply concerning pandemic that has now spread to nearly 23 countries, which makes it all the more possible for the virus to reach Pakistan as well.

ADPH is telling doctors that all pregnant women who have recently traveled to places where the Zika virus is known to be circulated by mosquitos should be evaluated for the disease.

But the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that transmit the virus are not present in Canada because they are not adaptable to the country’s cold climate, Taylor said.

The biggest risk is for pregnant women, however, as it is increasingly thought that infection with zika during pregnancy can lead to birth defects like microcephaly. Other nations and territories include Barbados, Bolivia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin, Suriname, Venezuela and the US Virgin Islands, according to the PAHO. Pakistan should also issue a strict travel ban on pregnant women and couples that are travelling to the affected countries.

Brazil and the United States agreed Friday (Saturday in Manila) to launch a high-level bilateral group to develop a vaccine against the Zika virus that has spread rapidly across the Americas and been linked to microcephaly.

“The best way to prevent Zika is by not getting bitten, ” Biehler said. The outbreak began in Brazil past year and has now spread to 24 countries in the Americas. An estimated 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms.

Dr. Stacie Lynn Ginsberg of Chilton Urgent Care in Clanton says the emerging health threat is particularly terrifying for pregnant women.

There is no treatment for Zika infection and a vaccine suitable for widespread use is months, if not years away, developers are warning. Although the Zika virus typically causes only mild symptoms, such as fever and red eye, outbreaks in Brazil have coincided with a marked increase in microcephaly – a disorder that causes an unusually small head size in newborns.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said Friday that he doesn’t think U.S. airports need to screen travellers arriving from nations with Zika cases.

The only cases in the continental United States involve patients who traveled to countries where the disease is actively being spread by mosquitos. “The only thing we can do is fight the mosquito”, she told reporters during a visit to a command centre for the Zika crisis.

Zika was first identified in 1947, causing its first human case in 1952 in Uganda. Health authorities in Brazil have also reported an increase in Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Although the disease is mainly transmitted through mosquitoes, PHE said sexual transmission had been recorded in a “limited number of cases”.

Malaysia’s Health Ministry said Zika had not yet been detected.