Health minister urges Brazilians to join Zika battle

(Though only a quarter or so of people infected with Zika experience any symptoms.) The viral loitering may up the chances of transmission, the authors speculate.

About 15 companies and groups are involved in the race to find a vaccine for the mosquito-borne virus, though “most have only just started work”, the WHO’s Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny said at a Geneva press conference.

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed, Wednesday, the link between the Zika virus and microcephaly, the congenital condition associated with incomplete brain development.

The Zika virus infection is widespread in several countries, particularly in the American region, and has sparked fear in the majority of the world population. Still it will be 18 months away from large-scale trials.

Zika virus is primarily transmitted through a mosquito bite, and there is no indication that it can spread from person to person through casual contact. Rather, researchers reported finding “replication-competent Zika virus isolated from semen at least two weeks and possibly up to 10 weeks after illness onset”, according to the CDC. The WHO put special procedures in place after the 2014 outbreak to fast-track late-stage tests and vaccines.

Pregnant women or those thinking about becoming pregnant are still being advised to delay travel to the affected countries, and people traveling in those countries are asked to use mosquito repellents, she said.

Versalovic said the test he’s developing could provide answers within three or four hours, although transportation time to and from labs could add a day or two to the wait.

Since the Ebola outbreak reached Dallas in September 2015, the entire city has seemed on edge about vaccines and disease control.

The Ohio Department of Health is reporting the state’s third and fourth cases of the Zika virus.

Pregnant women anxious about Zika could have an amniocentesis, a test in which doctors withdraw a small amount of the amniotic fluid that surrounds a fetus at 13 weeks of pregnancy.

Meanwhile, a second pregnant woman had been diagnosed with the Zika virus in Australia, officials said yesterday, adding that the disease was acquired overseas and there was no public health risk. Earlier this month, health officials said a person in Dallas appeared to have contracted the virus after having sex with a man who had recently traveled to Venezuela, where Zika is spreading.