CDC issues travel advisory for Thailand over Zika virus

More than two-lakh soldiers have been deployed across Brazil to warn people about the risks of Zika virus.

The World Health Organization says the most recent outbreak of the disease, which was diagnosed in Brazil last April, has now spread to 26 countries in the Americas.

Colombia reported Saturday that there was a sharp increase in Zika virus cases in the country, with an announced total of 31,555 cases, including 5,013 pregnant women.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes have claimed that the current outbreak of the Zika virus will not affect this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Meanwhile, studies are further showing that the virus can be transmitted through bodily fluids, and is associated with abnormalities in unborn babies’ brain, leading to a condition called microcephaly.

The U.N. health body in Geneva said in a weekly report that Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), which can cause temporary paralysis, has been reported in Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Suriname and Venezuela. But in wake of Zika virus, the state health ministry plans to include the details about head circumference of all the children.

For this year, they are forecasting 600,000 Zika cases overall and about 500 cases of microcephaly.

Rousseff returned to a regular point, telling the population to do more to fight the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which transmits dengue, chikungunya and Zika virus.

The Philippines, sole reported case of Zika was in 2012 and involved a teenage boy in Cebu island in central Philippines.

The government has said pregnant women with Zika are eligible to access much-restricted abortion services.

There is no cure for Zika, although a vaccine could be available in 18 months. It is because of our importance that we have to do it, “he said”.

The massive onset of the Zika virus, which the World Health Organization recently declared a global health emergency, may lead to the first cancellation of the Olympic Games since 1944.

The Brazilian government is battling concerns that health and travel advisories could impact the number of tourists coming to Brazil to participate in the February 5 Carnival or the Rio Summer Olympics in August.