Was Zika outbreak caused by release of genetically modified mosquitoes in Brazil?

Dr Ian Njeru, Head of Disease Surveillance and Response at the Ministry of Health said a health alert was issued a fortnight ago to health workers at the various points of entry to look out for persons with symptoms that could be associated with Zika Virus.

In South America, panic runs high due to the connection of the Zika virus with Microcephaly, in which a baby is born with a small head and brain.

The virus was first isolated from a rhesus monkey in Zika forest, Uganda in 1947, in mosquitoes in the same forest in 1948, and in humans in Nigeria in 1954.

He added that the symptoms of the disease include fever, rash, nausea. It is likely the virus will be unknowingly carried by many people, thus creating a larger health problem as it spreads from person to person, even outside of tropical climates.

More than 2,100 pregnant Colombian women are infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus, the country’s national health institute said over the weekend, as the disease continues its spread across the Americas.

The Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries Zika, is not present in the SAR but Aedes albopictus, which has caused local cases of dengue, can be a possible vector.

A pregnant woman from Long Island told the Post that she and her husband canceled their trip to the Caribbean in the wake of the outbreak. There’s simply a “data vacuum” when it comes to the virus, said Cameron Simmons, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Melbourne’s Nossal Institute for Global Health.

According to World Health Organization, the Zika virus was first reported on May 2015, in Brazil.

World Health Organization officials say there is no scientific proof that Zika stunts the development of the fetus, causing microcephaly, but it is strongly suspected.

What is Zika Virus disease?

The Health Ministry is advising caution and says it’s following the situation in countries with the Zika virus closely. According to Reuters, Deputy Health Minister Eduardo Espinoza of El Salvador announced that they “suggest to all the women of fertile age that they take steps to plan their pregnancies, and avoid getting pregnant between this year and next”.

“The leaders agreed on the importance of collaborative efforts to deepen our knowledge, advance research and accelerate work to develop better vaccines and other technologies to control the virus”, the White House said in a statement.

“We’ll respond a lot faster than a vaccine that hasn’t been invented yet”, Oxitec CEO Hadyn Parry told CBS MoneyWatch. We do not know how often Zika is transmitted from mother to baby during pregnancy or around the time of birth.

Concerns go all the way to the International Olympic Committee, as the Summer Olympics will be held in Rio De Janerio later this year.