FSU Researchers Find Possible Solutions To Stopping Spread Of Zika

Doctors had been monitoring 20 pregnant women in areas where the Zika disease had been reported, with six having given birth to healthy babies, he said.

The Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has said it will test a human vaccine by the end of the year. In Brazil, the virus has been linked to more than 1,800 cases of microcephaly, and USA officials expect as many as 270 cases in Puerto Rico, where local transmission of the virus is widespread.

In addition to 24 new Zika cases, nine were detected in the health ministry’s “look-back” testing of previous cases, a ministry statement said.

The Food and Drug Administration is recommending universal testing of donated whole blood and blood components for Zika virus in the United States, and so far OR has had few cases.

Blood testing began last month in parts of Florida after the first cases of homegrown Zika occurred in Miami.

Dr. Howard Haft, deputy secretary of public health services for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, said varied research can help lead to a solution to Zika.

The rising number of the mosquito-borne disease cases in Florida worries the FDA, because there is a great chance that it can accidentally be infused in pregnant women and increase the risk of their unborn child to have serious birth defects.

The organization tested the drugs upon three strains of Zika virus: African, Puerto Rican, and Asian.

Testing donated blood has been proved to be an efficient way of detecting the virus and is likely to reduce the chances of contamination.

Another antiviral drug potentially effective against Zika is PHA-690509.

They subsequently screened 6,000 compounds that were either already approved or were in the process of a clinical trial because they could be made more quickly available to people infected by Zika.

“Whether it is safe to use emricasan during pregnancy for Zika virus infection in humans will need to be evaluated in clinical trials”, the study concluded.

Zika virus is transmitted primarily by the Aedes mosquito.

So far, they have screened 6,000 compounds that are either already approved for use in humans or are now in late-stage clinical trials, and have found two classes of compounds that may be effective.

“The Cobas Zika test is a blood screening test for blood donations only”, Roche spokesman Bob Purcell said.

Hologic Inc (HOLX.O) and Roche Molecular Systems (ROG.S) have received special permits for their tests to be used for screening blood for Zika, Peter Marks also said. Brazil has been the hardest hit, with thousands of infants born with this defect, known as microcephaly.

Baltimore Sun reporter Meredith Cohn contributed to this article.