WakeMed urges awareness of Zika virus and its effects

As media outlets worldwide continue to report, it seems that the world could be at risk of further health threats in the months and years to come, as it emerges that a unsafe new bug could sweep American countries and citizens in their millions, according to the World Health Organization.

The virus is spread through mosquitos.

“It is far better”, said the Georgetown University public health expert, “to be overprepared than to wait until a Zika epidemic spins out of control”.

He cautioned that this is only an estimate, based on data regarding how a different virus – dengue – spreads, though he acknowledged the Zika virus is now circulating with “very high intensity”. But it’s hard to test for Zika and there’s no quick, on-the-spot test, making research difficult.no one knows if certain mothers are more vulnerable and it’s not clear what stage in pregnancy might be the most risky for an infection to occur. Approximately one in five people infected with the virus show symptoms.

Zika is suspected of being behind the birth of babies with abnormally small heads. Surveillance is also being heightened in countries to which the virus may spread.

Zika has flown under most people’s radar until now because it usually causes such mild symptoms that 80 percent of infected people don’t even notice it. Symptoms include a rash, a fever, sometimes conjunctivitis and headache.

Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott is trying to calm fears about the outbreak of the Zika virus after three cases of the illness were confirmed in Canada.

The Committee will meet on Monday 1 February in Geneva to ascertain whether the outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. People sick with Zika virus should get plenty of rest, drink enough fluids, and treat pain and fever with common medicines. Pregnant women in particular are being advised to stay covered up outdoors in the event of risking mosquito bites.

However, the virus is “particularly unsafe for pregnant women, as it can cause serious birth defects in babies, including a condition called microcephaly, in which babies are born with small heads and under-developed brains”, NPR’s Here & Now reported.

The WHO’s Chan said that while a direct causal relationship between Zika virus infection and birth malformations has not yet been established, it is “strongly suspected”.

In her first major address on the Zika outbreak, the head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan, said the mosquito-borne virus has gone from being “a mild threat to one of alarming proportions”. Rather, he said, visitors to Brazil should take steps to avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned women who are pregnant or want to become pregnant to avoid traveling to areas in Latin America and the Caribbean that are experiencing outbreaks of the virus.

“We must declare war on the mosquito and until we have a vaccine against the Zika virus, that war must focus our efforts on eliminating its breeding grounds”, Rousseff said on her Twitter page.

“So, that’s part of the reason we are trying to get the information out to countries that have got the vector but may not yet have the virus – look now for the virus”, he added.