Alarm over spread of baby brain virus

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the mosquito-borne Zika virus could spread to nearly every country in the Americas.

Identifying the Zika virus may take a couple of days and symptoms are homogeneous of other arbovirus infections, such as fever, skin rashes, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise and headaches.

It is not known how the Zika virus might cause microcephaly in the womb but it is likely to result from an infection of the developing foetal brain in the first three months, and possibly first few weeks, of pregnancy, said Professor Rodrigues, who is investigating the outbreak in Brazil.

Health workers fumigate to prevent Dengue, Chikunguya and Zika virus in Lima, Peru.

The disease has rapidly spread to 21 countries and territories in that region since May 2015, due to a lack of immunity among the population and the prevalence of the mosquito which causes the Zika virus.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Friday extended its travel warning to eight countries including Cape Verde, bringing the total number of countries to 22.

It is transmitted through bites from the same kind of mosquitoes that can spread other tropical diseases, like dengue fever, chikungunya and yellow fever. These recommendations have come in for criticism by some women’s rights campaigners who argue that women in the region often have little choice over becoming pregnant.

Unfortunately, there is no vaccine available to control this disease, RT News reported.

In Brazil alone, there have been 3,500 reported cases of newborns having small brains since October.

The California Department of Public Health has also confirmed five cases of the Zika virus in the state, all from people infected outside of the U.S.

Zika is a type of arbovirus and is spread through mosquito bites.

No cases of the Zika virus have been reported in the continental United States.

Maria Conceicao Queiroz said there was a sense of fear where she lives, near the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro: “Every one is at risk; we’re all scared of getting Zika”.

“Areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing are hard to determine and likely to change over time”, it says.

There is no specific medicine to treat the mosquito-borne virus and there hasn’t been a vaccine developed for it.

In addition 266,000 employees of local health authorities will increase efforts to contain the virus, which has been the subject of hardly any research. The list of infected countries so far include: Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin, Suriname, and Venezuela.