Zika Virus Symptoms Seen in More Than 5000 Pregnant Colombian Women: Government

On Tuesday, Colombia reported that almost 100 cases of GBS have been reported across the country, with all these patients also suffering from Zika.

In the United States, Gov. Rick Scott declared a health emergency in four counties last week after at least nine cases of the mosquito-borne illness were detected in Florida.

Pediatric cardiologist Dr. Sandra Mattos has presented two reports to the World Health Organization recently: “Microcephaly in northeastern Brazil: a review of 16,208 births between 2012 and 2015” and “Brazil’s Pre-Zika Microcephaly Cases”, postulating that there is indeed a microcephaly outbreak, but it began in 2012.

The state health department encourages residents to drain standing water in any containers, which is the breeding source for mosquitoes; cover exposed skin with long-sleeved shirts and trousers, and to wear mosquito repellent outdoors.

Zika symptoms are usually mild and similar to dengue, which is transmitted by the same mosquito.

The government said it only used larvicides recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The country has 462 confirmed cases of microcephaly, and it is investigating another 3,852 suspected cases. The illness is primarily spread through mosquito bites, but investigators have been exploring the likelihood of sexually transmission of the virus. It can survive in semen for more than 60 days after infection. At the center of the controversy are mass fumigation strategies created to mitigate the spread of Zika by mosquito carriers. Doctors commonly screen pregnant women for these infections, said Dr Ian Lipkin of the Centre for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University in NY.

There are now no vaccines or treatment for the virus, though research institutes and pharmaceutical companies are working on several possibilities.

Earlier this week, researchers in Slovenia published a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine describing a severely brain damaged foetus from a mother who was infected with Zika in Brazil and later terminated the pregnancy.

Brazil’s federal government said there was no scientific evidence to link pyriproxyfen to microcephaly. Already-pregnant women have been advised not to travel to the countries affected.