Virus that causes microcephaly threatens to spread across the Americas

Zika, a virus that causes brain damage in unborn babies, could spread across the Americas while humans have not yet found an effective vaccine to prevent it.

Health workers spray insecticide to prevent the spread of the Zika virus in Soyapango, El Salvador. Photo: Reuters

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the Zika virus is transmitted from person to person through the mosquito. It can spread in almost all countries in the Americas, except Canada and Chile. Meanwhile, the Brazilian Ministry of Health said Zika causes a birth defect called microcephaly. Mothers infected with the virus give birth to children with smaller brains than normal, Reuters reported.

Brazil has reported 3,893 suspected cases of microcephaly, 30 times more than the number of cases reported each year since 2010. That represents 1 to 2 percent of all births in the state of Pernambuco, the hardest-hit region in Brazil, the WHO said.

Zika is unlikely to have the same kind of outbreak as the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014, but it is still a testament to the dangers of diseases that are little understood. “We have no drugs and no vaccines for Zika,” said Trudie Lang, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Oxford. “That’s exactly what we’re seeing with Ebola. There’s an urgent need for a vaccine.”

The Zika virus was first discovered in a monkey in the Zika Forest, near Lake Victoria, Uganda, in 1947. Cases have since been reported in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. However, scientists have not been able to determine how the virus emerged in Brazil.

Brazil will host the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in August. Pregnant women are advised to stay away from the area to avoid mosquito bites. The WHO also advises pregnant women planning to travel to areas with outbreaks to take extra care of their health.

The clinical symptoms of microcephaly are usually mild and similar to those of dengue fever, which is transmitted by the Aedes mosquito. Many fear that Zika will spread around the world as dengue has become more common. More than a third of the world lives in areas at risk of dengue, suggesting that a similar number of people are at risk of Zika infection.

According to Zing.vn