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Tag: Zika Virus

  • 22 Zika Virus cases in India, no deaths reported

    India has reported its third Zika virus outbreak in the Western State of Rajasthan since January 2017, where 22 people have tested positive and no death were reported Tuesday.

    “Till date, a total of 22 positive laboratory confirmed cases have been detected. A control room has been activated at the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to undertake regular monitoring of the situation,’’ the Indian Health Ministry said in a statement.

    Read Also:Zika virus might cure brain cancer – Research

    A senior official said all the 22 cases are from state capital Jaipur. “Some of these victims are migrant workers from eastern states like Bihar. Fortunately, there have been no reports of any deaths till now,’’ he added.

    Our reporter gathered that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought a report on the Zika virus outbreak in Rajasthan.

    Zika virus disease is spread by daytime-active Aedes mosquitoes.

    Its symptoms include fever, skin rashes, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, and headache.

    The first outbreak of Zika was reported in India in January 2017 in the western state of Gujarat, while the second outbreak was reported in the southern state of Tamil Nadu in July 2017; both of them were contained.

  • Zika virus might cure brain cancer – Research

    The devastating Zika virus could be used in the fight against brain cancer, a recent medical report said on Friday.

    The report was published on Tuesday by researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch, who have been researching into the Zika virus for years, trying to figure out how the virus attacks the brain.

    Read Also:Scientists develop new tool to target mosquito-borne Zika virus

    Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is thought to be the most dangerous form of brain cancer as most patients die within two years after diagnosis.

    According to the leader of the research group, Dr. Shi Peiyong, it is almost incurable because tumors always grow back after surgery and chemotherapy.

    Scientists found that a live-attenuated Zika vaccine with a weakened version of the virus could kill GBM stem cells without causing disease in humans.

    “That’s because GBM stem cells have similar properties to neural stem cells, the target of Zika,’’ Dr. Shi explained.

    Research has shown that the Zika vaccine could prolong the lives of mice with human GBM without damaging the brain or altering their behaviour.

    “However, that is far from enough, we still need to further improve the specificity of the cancer-killing ability, while retaining the safety of the vaccine strain.

    “For example, we need to make sure that the therapeutic vaccine virus does not infect and kill normal neurons in humans,’’ Dr. Shi explained.

    Zika has not been considered as a severe problem until a massive outbreak in 2015.

    Apart from flu-like symptoms, Zika could also cause birth defects including blindness, deformed limbs and microcephaly in children from infected mothers during pregnancy.

    NAN

  • Scientists develop new tool to target mosquito-borne Zika virus

    Dr Maggy Sikulu-Lord, a University of Queensland researcher, on Thursday, said scientists have developed cheap tool that could rapidly identify mosquitoes infected with the dangerous Zika virus.

    Sikulu-Lord, who developed the tool with colleagues in Brazil, said in a statement that “we can now quickly identify mosquitoes that are infected with the Zika virus, so public health authourities can treat affected areas before the disease spreads to humans.

    “This is definitely going to be a game-changer in disease surveillance, especially in the prediction of disease outbreaks.”

    Read Also:Nigerians ’ve immunity against Zika virus, says minister

    Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that can cause dengue fever-like symptoms and brain abnormalities in unborn babies.

    It has also been linked to the paralysing Guillain-Barré syndrome.

    The new tool, touted as 18 times faster and 110 times cheaper than the current detection method, only involves shining a beam of light onto mosquitoes and using that information to determine if the mosquito is infected, Sikulu-Lord said.

    He explained that the technology had the potential to detect a number of diseases too, noting that
    “we have so far achieved a 94 to 99 per cent accuracy rate in identifying infected mosquitoes under laboratory conditions in Brazil.

    “We hope to have results for detecting dengue and malaria in mosquitoes in the next few months.

    “We don’t think it will eradicate diseases but it will give us the ability to detect diseases quickly so that we can stop disease outbreaks.”

  • Angola records first two cases of Zika virus

    Angola said on Wednesday it has recorded its first two cases of the Zika virus, just three months after a yellow fever epidemic that killed at least 400 people was brought under control.

    Zika, a viral disease carried by mosquitoes, has spread to more than 60 countries and territories since an outbreak was identified in Brazil in 2015, raising alarm over its ability to cause the rare birth defect microcephaly.

    “Up until two months ago, we didn’t have any detected case, but now, we have two cases of Zika,” Reuters quoted Health Minister, José Luis Gomes Sambo, as saying journalists in the Angolan capital, Luanda.

    “We have to take preventable measures, especially in the anti-vectorial fight against the mosquitoes.”

    ”Angola is only just recovering from a yellow fever outbreak, which began in a densely-populated Luanda slum before rapidly spreading across the southwest African country and into neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

    Nearly 12 million people were vaccinated against yellow fever last year in Angola and the DRC in a campaign led by the World Health Organisation.

  • Vietnam reports 93 Zika cases – Official

    Vietnam has reported 93 Zika infection cases in nine localities nationwide so far this year, Tran Dac Phu, the Head of the General Department of Preventive Medicine under Vietnam’s Ministry of Health (MoH) said on Monday.

    He said “most Zika infections are found in southern Vietnam, and the disease has developed into a massive outbreak.

    “Among those infected cases in Vietnam was a four-month-old kid suffering from microcephaly, with possible link to Zika virus was recorded,’’ Phu said.

    Phu said in case Zika cases rise in the coming time, the MoH has built a plan to respond to the disease in three scenarios of no infiltration, penetration but scattering and outbreak

    “Updates on the situation and warns have been continuously provided to local people,’’ Phu said.

    According to Phu, the current target is to minimise the spreading of Zika virus in the community and prevent Zika infection among pregnant women.

  •  Zika may damage brain cells- Experts

     Zika may damage brain cells- Experts

    Researchers said aside that Zika virus caused microcephaly and brain abnormalities in foetuses, new study had revealed that adult brain cells critical to learning and memory may also be infected.

    The research published in Cell Stem Cell journal in Washington, U.S. on Friday, reveals that more studies are needed to determine if the damage has long-term biological implications or the potential to affect behaviour.

    It said that for now, the findings suggested the possibility that the Zika virus may be more harmful than previously believed.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Joseph Gleeson, a professor at the Rockefeller University and one of the co-authors of the study, said that the research was the first study looking at the effect of Zika infection on the adult brain.

    “Based on our findings, getting infected with Zika as an adult may not be as innocuous as people think.

    “In developing foetuses, the brains are comprised entirely of neural progenitor cells, the kind of stem cells that in healthy individuals grow and divide rapidly to become fully formed neurons,’’ he said.

    Gleeson said that current evidence suggested that Zika could target neural progenitor cells in developing foetuses, leading to microcephaly and a wide variety of developmental disabilities.

    He said that the research revealed that the mature brain retained some niches of the neural progenitor cells, which the researchers suspected were also vulnerable to Zika infection.

    “These niches exist primarily in the sub-ventricular zone of the anterior forebrain and the sub-granular zone of the hippocampus, two regions vital for learning and memory in mice.’’

    Gleeson said he and his colleagues created a mouse model and then injected a modern Zika strain into the mice’s bloodstream to mimic Zika infection in humans.

    According to him, the results showed adult neural progenitor cells can indeed be hijacked by the virus.

    “It was very clear that the virus wasn’t affecting the whole brain evenly, like people are seeing in the foetus.

    “In the adult, it’s only these two populations that are very specific to the stem cells that are affected by virus. These cells are special, and somehow very susceptible to the infection,’’ he said.

    The researchers recognised that healthy humans may be able to mount an effective immune response and prevent the virus from attacking.

    However, they suggested that some people, such as those weakened immune systems, may be vulnerable to the virus in a way that had not been recognized.

    They said that although there were still many unanswered questions, as the findings raised the possibility that Zika was not simply a transient infection in adult humans, and that exposure in the adult brain could have long-term effects.

    “The virus seems to be travelling quite a bit as people move around the world.’’

    They advised that as a result of the study, the public health enterprise should consider monitoring for Zika infections in all groups, not just pregnant women.

  • Guinea-Bissau confirms three cases of Zika virus

    Guinea-Bissau has confirmed its first three cases of the Zika virus in a group of islands off the mainland and has set up an emergency committee to stop further transmission of the disease, the government said on Friday.

    Experts have feared the tiny nation could become a gateway for Zika’s spread to mainland West Africa, after an outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus was first recorded in the African island chain of Cape Verde late last year.

    “The Health Minister has informed (the government) of three confirmed cases of Zika virus contamination located in the Bijagos Archipelago,” Reuters quoted the government as saying in a statement sent to journalists.

    Zika is spreading through the Caribbean and Latin America. Only about 20 percent of infected cases display symptoms, which are usually mild and include fever, joint pain and conjunctivitis.

    But the CDC said it can be spread from pregnant women to fetuses and has been linked to a birth defect called microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and sometimes brain damage.

    Guinea-Bissau’s government said it was establishing a committee headed by Prime Minister Baciro Dja that would impose a series of measures aimed at containing the disease.

    The statement did not give the suspected origin of the three cases.

  • Abortion requests rise amid Zika fears

    Abortion requests rise amid Zika fears

    The mysterious Zika virus has been detected in 61 countries, the majority in Latin America and more pregnant women are considering abortions out of fear of birth defects in their babies.

    The Zika virus may be driving a surge in interest in abortions in Latin America, according to a new study published by the New England Journal of Medicine.

    According to the study, requests for abortion services in the region through one non-profit provider have jumped more than a third, with increases of close to double in hard-hit Brazil and Venezuela.

    Abortion is illegal or severely restricted in most of Latin America, and so there are no official data on abortion rates.

    Researchers instead examined data from the organisation Women on Web, which offers access to pharmaceutical abortions for women in countries where abortion is not available.

    A comparison of abortion service requests through Women on Web before and after the first public warnings about Zika six months ago showed increases of at least 36 per cent in all 19 countries surveyed.

    The data help to illustrate how much Zika is worrying pregnant women in the region, said Abigail Aiken of the University of Texas at Austin, one of the study’s authors.

    One factor driving the surge may have been government warnings urging women in Zika-affected areas to wait to become pregnant – warnings that may have alarmed women who already were.

    For women whose children were born with the virus, the uncertainty can be devastating.

    At a children’s hospital in the Venezuelan city of Valencia, Sodelis Balboa, 31, cried as she waited for news of her infant daughter.

    “My baby has Zika and now the doctors say there were complications,” she told dpa. “No one can tell me what is going on.

    The doctors just put me off.”

    Treatment is a “disaster,” she said, amid an economic crisis in Venezuela that has led to a shortage of food and medicine.

    Part of the problem is that close to five months after WHO declared Zika an emergency, much about the mosquito-borne virus remains unknown.

    Doctors now know for sure that the Zika virus can cause severe skull deformations in human embryos. The deformations, known as microcephaly, result in babies born with abnormally small heads and severe disabilities.

    But it is unclear why only a fraction of Zika infections in pregnant women result in microcephaly. Additionally, in Brazil there have been more than 1,400 confirmed cases of microcephaly since the outbreak began, but Zika was confirmed in only about one in seven.

    In July, the U.S. and Brazil will begin a wide-ranging study of 10,000 pregnant women in countries with a prevalence of Zika, 4,000 of them in Brazil.

    Tests for a Zika vaccine will begin on monkeys and mice in November, and scientists hope to have a single-dose vaccine for humans by 2018.

    With 1.5 million estimated infections, Brazil is the country hardest-hit by Zika, but abortion is illegal there except in cases of rape or severe risk to the mother’s health.

    The crisis has sparked a public debate about a kind of “Lex Zika” – whereby pregnant women with the money to pay private clinics for abortion services get them, and poor women do not.

    But the Catholic-dominated country of 200 million remains starkly divided on the issue.

    A survey of more than 2,700 people by the Datafolha Institute found a strong majority 58 per cent, against allowing abortions for pregnant women infected with Zika.

  • Brazil reports 1,581 Zika-related cases

    Brazil reports 1,581 Zika-related cases

    Brazil’s Health Ministry on Thursday confirmed 1,581 cases of microcephaly related to the Zika virus since October 2015.

    A total of 7,936 suspected cases of microcephaly were reported in the past nine months, 3,308 of which have been dismissed of its link to the virus and 3,047 remain under probe.

    According to the ministry, the cases are registered in all but one northern state – Acre -Brazil.
    The ministry also confirmed 317 deaths of newborns since October as a result of microcephaly.

    Microcephaly is a birth defect marked by unusually small heads and underdeveloped brains.

    The ministry added that it could be caused by a number of factors such as drug use during pregnancy and rubella.

    It said the sudden rise in microcephaly cases in Brazil since 2015 had been mainly attributed to the mothers’ exposure to the Zika virus.

    Zika is raging across Latin America, with Brazil having registered the largest number of microcephaly cases.

    The country’s northeastern states have been hardest hit, especially Pernambuco (336 cases), Bahia (254) and Paraiba (139).

    The spike in birth defects prompted the government to declare a health emergency at the end of 2015 and to take measures to curb reproduction of mosquitoes that transmit the virus.

    On Tuesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO), reported an observed increase in neurological disorders and neonatal malformations due to Zika.

    WHO maintained its previous advice against restrictions on travel and trade, with countries affected by the epidemic, including the cities in Brazil that would be hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

    However, the WHO counseled pregnant women to avoid travelling to areas with ongoing Zika outbreaks, and to practice safe sex during their pregnancy if their partners live in or traveled to the affected areas.

  • U.S. researcher contracts Zika

    U.S. researcher contracts Zika

    A U.S. researcher who contracted Zika virus after pricking herself with a needle during an experiment last month, has returned to work, the University of Pittsburgh said on Friday.

    There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, which is a close cousin of diseases, including dengue and chikungunya, and causes mild fever, rash and red eyes.

    “The unidentified researcher accidentally stuck herself on May 23 and showed fever and other possible symptoms on June 1.

    “She returned to work on June 6 when she no longer had a fever.

    “ On Wednesday, the university was informed that a blood sample from the researcher tested positive for a Zika infection,” the spokesperson for the university, Joe Miksch, said.

    The Director of Health Department, Karen Hacker, said in a statement that the incident was the fourth confirmed case of Zika virus in the Allegheny County, but declined to give details.

    “In spite of this rare incident, there is still no current risk of contracting Zika from mosquitoes in the university,’’ it said.

    U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies.

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) had said that there was strong scientific consensus that Zika could also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that caused temporary paralysis in adults.

    The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has now confirmed more than 1,400 cases of microcephaly that it considers to be related to Zika infections in mothers.

    To reduce the chance of virus transmission, the Pittsburgh researcher is using insect repellent to avoid mosquito bites, besides wearing pants and garments with long sleeves.