Brazil finds Zika in microcephaly babies’ brains

Last May, it began to spread rapidly in Brazil, then gaining ground in other countries of South and North America.

“Research shows there is a strong correlation between Zika and underdevelopment of the brain”, Palen said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has warned all pregnant women to avoid traveling to South America, Central America and the Caribbean, saying that is where the virus is spreading more quickly than anywhere else. Suitable insecticides (recommended by the WHO Pesticide Evaluation Scheme) may also be used as larvicides to treat relatively large water containers, when this is technically indicated.

A new report from a group of Argentinian physicians claims the toxic substance, rather than the Zika virus, is to blame for the huge spike in babies born with microcephaly in Brazil, although the Brazilian government has dismissed the claims, according to The Telegraph. Until more is understood, Members States are advised to standardize and enhance surveillance for microcephaly and other neurological disorders, particularly in areas of known Zika virus transmission and areas at risk of such transmission. One of the things that is perplexing to Dr. Mattos and her colleagues is that over 80 percent of the cases of microcephaly are in the northeastern section of the country. However, the possible association with Zika seems less clear cut. “They’re carried by the same mosquito”, Beeler says, so “any work to reduce the spread of Zika is also going to help reduce the spread of dengue” and other diseases.

Sinara Gumieri, an attorney and legal counselor with the group that’s preparing the lawsuit, said the abortion ban combined with the government’s failure to eradicate the mosquito violate the right to health that’s enshrined in Brazil’s constitution. The August timing of the event comes during winter, when mosquitoes are least active.

Health officials report the virus penetrating 21 of 55 countries across the western hemisphere.

El Salvador has recorded more than 7,000 cases of the Zika virus since December and 13 Zika-infected pregnant women have had babies without defects. There are unconfirmed numbers that bring the count of confirmed cases to 270, and suspected cases to 3,500 in 2015.

The charges led one of Brazil’s southern states, Rio Grande Do Sul, to temporarily suspend use of the larvicide in drinking water.

However, he did affirm that the Vatican and Francis were very aware of the gravity of the epidemic and the threat it poses to public health, but he said they were waiting to see the reactions of local churches in the affected countries.

“I am not waiting for the Zika Virus to be identified in Michigan, ” Patterson said last week in his State of the County address. The meeting was requested by the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response (ASPR).