Peru braces for spreading Zika virus as first case confirmed

Health Minister Luisana Melo said Thursday on state television that 4,700 suspected cases of Zika have been recorded in Venezuela.

Peru said Friday a Venezuelan man in Lima, who recently traveled through Colombia, had contracted the mosquito-borne virus Zika, in the Andean country’s first confirmed case of the disease that is rapidly spreading across the Americas.

Up to now some 4,500 people are suspected of having been infected with the Zika virus, according to Melo. The once-rare virus is spreading rapidly through the Americas since first being reported in Brazil last May.

Between Jan 1 and Wednesday, 949 Zika cases were reported, with authorities being alerted to 51 other cases in December, Mr Contreras told reporters on Wednesday (Jan 27).

Former Health Minister Jose Oletta says the country normally sees 30 to 40 cases of Guillain-Barre a month and said the large number now indicates that Zika infections are far greater than the roughly 4,500 suspected cases than officials acknowledge.

Venezuela authorities have broken their silence on the outbreak of Zika in the country and are pledging to mount a public health campaign to slow the virus’ spread.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has called for a meeting of the member nations of South America’s Mercosur trading bloc to discuss ways to join forces to eliminate the Aedes mosquito and the Zika virus it transmits.

Speaking in Washington, Fauci said the US government is taking the virus “very seriously” and preparing in case it should spread to the United States.

The current Zika outbreak in northeastern Brazil has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in the number of babies born with microcephaly.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says the disease is now in more than 20 countries, mostly in Central and South America.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach says the fact that the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will be held in August – during Brazil’s winter – could limit difficulties caused by the outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus. But there’s mounting evidence linking it to a birth defect, especially in Brazil.

The World Health Organization says Canada and Chile are the only two countries in the Americas where the virus is not likely to spread.

There is now no specific treatment for Zika and no way to prevent it other than avoiding mosquito bites.

Virologists say there is now no cure for or vaccine against Zika and developing such a vaccine will surely take a long time.