Brazil to attack on mosquito breeding areas

The Zika virus is transmitted by bites by the Aedes species of mosquito and has been linked to microcephaly in thousands of babies in Brazil.

The health department and the Pennsylvania Medical Society on Friday will hold a conference call with news media to talk about Zika virus. It didn’t become a crisis until late in the year, when researchers made the link with a dramatic increase in reported cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect that sees babies born with unusually small heads and can cause lasting developmental problems.

A USA health official says he doubts the United States is vulnerable to a widespread outbreak of a virus linked to a wave of birth defects in Brazil.

What are city health officials doing to educate New Yorkers about the Zika virus? .

Several governments have warned pregnant women against traveling to affected countries, and several major airlines are now offering refunds to expecting mothers booked for travel to Latin America.

For pregnant women, Goldman said, “there is at least a chance your fetus could get a devastating illness”. Here are eight things he thinks you should know about the Zika virus.

“We just didn’t have the conditions or resources necessary to stop the mosquito or the virus”, says Maria da Gloria Teixeira, an epidemiologist in the neighbouring state of Bahia and a director of the Brazilian Association of Collective Health, a grouping of public health professionals.

Venezuelan Minister of Health Luisana Melo appeared on state television on Thursday and said Venezuelan authorities have recorded 4,700 suspected cases of Zika here.

“The leaders agreed on the importance of collaborative efforts to deepen our knowledge, advance research and accelerate work to develop better vaccines and other technologies to control the virus”.

In fact, it’s likely that millions of people in the tropical Americas may have had the virus without knowing.

On the suggestion of another scientist, Dr Foy had the blood samples re-tested and found that he and his colleague, as well as his wife who had remained in the U.S., had been infected by Zika.

What is the possibility of an outbreak in the U.S.?

“Vaccines will take many years, so mosquito control is the only card we have in the deck”, said Doyle. All those infected had contracted the virus while travelling overseas. Dr. Morens said it is typical for there to be a handful of cases in which the virus’s transmission deviates from its typical means of infection.

That’s because the mosquitoes, specifically a strain called Aedes aegypti, would be modified in the lab first to carry a gene that would be transferred to their offspring after mating with wild versions in the jungle.

Johnson says the Zika virus is only known to spread through two types of mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus.