Zika virus link to small-head condition ‘circumstantial’

This means children are born with heads that are too small, which often leads to serious developmental problems.

“Canada is off the list simply because it’s too cold for the type of mosquito that transmits the Zika virus”, NPR’s Jason Beaubien reports to our Newscast unit.

Zika is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito – the same vector responsible for dengue fever and cukungunya virus. One woman, whose baby shows signs of the effects of Zika, described her son’s birth as the “worst day of her life”.

Doctors should ask pregnant women about their travel and certain symptoms, and – if warranted – test them for an infection with the Zika (ZEE’-ka) virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. To date, there is no vaccine and specific treatment for Zika.

“We need to have some kind of a plan that makes [companies] feel there is a sustainable solution and not just a one-shot deal over and over again”, Francis Collins, director of the US National Institutes of Health, said last week.

It belongs to the deadly yellow fever virus family that causes dengue, West Nile, and Chikungunya.

The Zika virus has ravaged Brazil, which has had more than 1 million cases in the past several months.

Given the threat, Collins said “it is now critically important to confirm, through careful epidemiological and animal studies, whether or not a causal link exists between Zika virus infections in pregnant women and microcephaly in their newborn babies”.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday warned that the Zika virus that caused concerns about possible birth defects would likely reach almost all countries in the Americas.

The CDC for instance states: “Pregnant women in any trimester should consider postponing travel to the areas where Zika transmission is ongoing”.

Mirivel says the individual traveled to the Central America-Caribbean region, though she would not specify which country. There have been around 3,500 reported cases of microcephaly – babies born with tiny brains – in Brazil alone since October.

“Areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing are hard to determine and likely to change over time”, it says. But there’s been mounting evidence linking the virus to a surge of a rare birth defect in Brazil.

Authorities in Brazil say they have launched a campaign to protect athletes and visitors from the Zika virus during the Olympics.

Hence, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised expectant moms to avoid travelling in countries, like Bolivia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Saint Martin, Suriname, Samoa, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.