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 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 intermediate mosquito. They can spread in almost all countries in the Americas, except Canada and Chile. Meanwhile, the Brazilian Ministry of Health said Zika causes a fetal deformity called microcephaly. Mothers infected with the virus will 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 epidemic in West Africa in 2014, but it still illustrates the dangers of diseases that are less well understood. “We have no drugs and no vaccine 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 been reported in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. However, scientists have not been able to determine how the virus emerged in Brazil.

In August, Brazil will host the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. 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 good care of their health.

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

According to Zing.vn