Brazilian women shun pregnancy due to Zika virus

More than half of young Brazilian women have shunned pregnancy due to Zika, which can cause birth defects, according to research released Friday.
In a national survey in June of more than 2,000 literate women in Brazil aged 18 to 39, 56 percent said they had “avoided, or tried to avoid pregnancy” due to the virus, according to an article in the medical journal BMJ.

More than a quarter of the women, however, reported that the Zika epidemic — which has swept across the country since mid-2015 — had not discouraged them from trying to have a child.

Sixteen percent said they had not been planning to get pregnant in any case.“The results provide an important first glimpse into how Zika has shaped pregnancy intentions among women in Brazil,” said co-author Marcelo Medeiros, a professor at the University of Brasilia.

While Zika causes only mild symptoms in most people, pregnant women with the virus risk giving birth to babies with microcephaly — a crippling deformation that leads to abnormally small brains and heads.

More than 1.5 million people have been infected with Zika, mainly in Brazil, and more than 1,600 babies have been born with microcephaly since last year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The UN’s global health agency ended the Zika global health emergency — declared in February 2016 — last month.

Brazil has refused to downgrade the risk, and some experts have criticised the WHO decision.

In the survey, women of colour were more likely to report avoiding pregnancy than white women.

There was no significant difference, however, among religious groups, with 58 percent of Catholics and 55 percent of evangelical women saying they had sought to avoid pregnancy.

“Brazil must urgently re-evaluate its reproductive health policies to ensure better access to contraception,” the authors wrote in BMJ.

The survey data was extracted from a larger study called the Brazilian National Abortion Survey, Medeiros told AFP.

First Case Of Zika-Infected Patient Confirmed In Slovakia

Slovak Health Minister Viliam Cislak on Thursday said the first case of a patient infected with the Zika virus has been confirmed in Slovakia.
Cislak said that the confirmation came from a virology laboratory in Hamburg.
He added that the infected patient is a woman who was admitted into hospital in Presov in the Eastern Slovakia on Monday returning from South Africa.
The patient was released from hospital in a good condition on Friday.
“She does not have to be isolated, there is no threat to anybody, Zika is not the kind of virus that could spread via air. The symptoms are similar to those of flu,’’ Cislak noted.
Report says the woman has been told that she should not become pregnant.
Also, she has been prohibited from donating blood and should also be cautious in terms of sexual contact.
Zika is a virus transmitted by mosquitoes, specifically the yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti); the specie is not generally found in Europe.
The virus can be transmitted from mother to child via the placenta.

 

 

(Xinhua/NAN)

WHO Requires $56m To Implement Zika Virus Strategy

The World Health Organisation (WHO) requires 56 million dollars to implement the recently launched global strategy to guide the international response to the spread of the Zika virus.

Natela Menabde, Executive Director of the WHO Office in New York, disclosed this on Wednesday to the UN member states during a briefing to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

She said under the strategy 25 million dollars would fund the joint response of WHO, the Regional Office for the Americas (AMRO) and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and 31 million dollars would fund the work of key partners.

She explained that upon Zika virus outbreak, WHO launched a global strategy to guide the international response to the spread of the virus and the neonatal malformations and neurological conditions associated with it.

Menabde said the strategy, also known as the “Strategic Response Framework and Joint Operations Plan’’, focused on mobilising and coordinating partners, experts and resources to help countries enhance surveillance of the Zika virus and disorders that could be linked to it.

She said it was also aimed at improving vector control, effectively communicate risks, guidance and protection measures, provide medical care to those affected and fast-track research and development of vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.

Menabde said in the in the interim, WHO had tapped a recently established emergency contingency fund to finance its initial operations.

She said under the new emergency programme, the global health agency had activated an “Incident Management System’’ to oversee the global response and leverage expertise from across the organisation to address the crisis.

“WHO is tapping a recently established emergency contingency fund to finance its initial operations.

Menabde said currently 34 countries had reported the Zika virus outbreak, mostly in the Americas and Caribbean, and seven reported an increase in cases of microcephaly.

She said Brazil had registered more than 4,700 suspected cases of microcephaly and a quarter was only studied for the moment.

She said before the outbreak of the virus, the average number of microcephaly every year was just 163 cases.

Credit: Leadership

Zika Virus Persisted In Man’s Semen For 2 Months

A man in Britain who was infected with Zika while traveling to the Cook Islands showed evidence of the mosquito-borne virus in his semen for two months, health officials said Friday.

The finding raises new questions for health authorities as they scramble to learn more about Zika — linked to a surge in birth defects in Brazil — and the risk of transmission through sex.

The case involved a 68-year-old man who was infected with Zika in 2014 while traveling.

He complained of a fever, rash and lethargy upon return to Britain, where he was tested and the results came back positive for Zika.

Though Zika symptoms are often mild and resolve themselves in about a week, the virus was found during tests of semen taken 27 and 62 days after the man’s initial infection, said a report from Public Health England, published online in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal.

Credit: Guardian

Obama Seeks Fund To Fight Zika

President Barack Obama will ask the US Congress for more than 1.8 billion dollars in emergency fund to fight Zika at home and abroad and pursue a vaccine, the White House said on Monday.
According to the report, the president also said there is no reason to panic over the mosquito-borne virus.
Zika, spreading rapidly in South and Central America and the Caribbean, has been linked to severe birth defects in Brazil and public health officials’ concern is focused on pregnant women and those who may become pregnant.

 

Obama’s request to the Congress includes 200 million dollars for research, development and commercialisation of new vaccines and diagnostic tests for the virus.
In a new development, the London-based European Medicines Agency (EMA), Europe’s drugs regulator, said it had formed an expert task force on Zika to advise companies working on vaccines and medicines against the virus.
There are no vaccines or treatment for Zika and none even undergoing clinical studies, as the disease had previously been viewed as relatively benign.
Most infected people develop either no symptoms or mild ones like fever and skin rashes.

 

“The good news is that this is not like Ebola, people don’t die of Zika. A lot of people get it and don’t even know that they have it. But there shouldn’t be panic on this; this is not something where people are going to die from it. It is something we have to take seriously,’’ Obama told CBS News in an interview aired on Monday.

Scientists are working to find out if there is a causal link between Zika and babies born with microcephaly, meaning they have abnormally small heads and can suffer developmental problems.
The research began after a huge rise in such birth defects last year in Brazil at the same time the virus took hold there.
Most of the money sought by Obama, who faces pressure from Republicans and some fellow Democrats to act decisively on Zika, would be spent in the United States on testing, surveillance and response in affected areas.

 

 

(Reuters/NAN)

World’s 1st Vaccine Against Zika Virus Developed

An Indian pharmaceutical firm claimed on Wednesday to have developed the world’s first vaccine against mosquito-borne Zika virus.

Dr Krishna Ella, Head of the Biotech International Limited, the company, based in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh’s capital Hyderabad, said at a news conference that it has already filed for a patent for the Zika vaccine.

“On Zika, we are probably the first vaccine company in the world to file a vaccine candidate patent about nine months ago,” he said.

Ella said the firm has sought the Indian government help for carrying out human and animal trials for the two candidate vaccines, which have been developed by its scientists, using a live Zika virus.

The claims came a day after the World Health Organisation said that the Zika virus poses a global public health emergency requiring a united response.

The virus has been linked to cases of microcephaly, in which babies are born with underdeveloped brains.

There have been around 4,000 reported cases of microcephaly in Brazil alone since October.

However, till date, there has been not a single reported case of Zika virus attack in India, though the government was said to have tested a number of samples.

Credit: NAN

WHO Declares Zika Virus Global Health Emergency As Nigeria Advises Travel Restriction

The World Health Organization on Monday declared Zika Virus a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

WHO also said protective measures against mosquito bites remain the most important preventive measure against the virus.

Margaret Chan, the WHO Director General, said at a press briefing in Geneva, Monday, that? a coordinated international response is needed to intensify the control of mosquito and expedite development of diagnostic tests.

“I convened the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee to gather advice on the severity of the health threat associated with Zika ?virus,” said Dr. Chan.

“The experts agreed that a causal relationship between Zika during pregnancy and microcephaly is strongly suspected.

“The causal relationship between Zika during pregnancy and microcephaly is not yet scientifically proven.

“The Committee found to public health justification for restrictions on travel or trade to prevent the spread of Zika virus.

“At present, the most important protective measures against Zika virus are the control of mosquito populations, prevention of mosquito bites in at-risk individuals, especially pregnant women.”

Dr. Chan, however, advised pregnant women to consider delaying travel to Zika virus-affected areas as well as protect themselves with safe mosquito repellant or long clothing.

The WHO’s position came a day after the Nigerian government advised a travel restriction of its pregnant citizens to Latin America, the worst hit region since the Zika virus outbreak began late last year.

Isaac Adewole, Nigeria’s Health Minister, ?said the restriction would remain in place until “the situation improves.”

Zika virus is transmitted via the bite of Aedes mosquitoes.

The viral infection has been linked with babies born with underdeveloped brains.

?There is currently no vaccine or drug to stop its spread.

Credit: PremiumTimes