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Zika virus outbreak
Topic Started: 16 Jan 2016, 02:02 AM (820 Views)
skibboy
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15 January 2016

Haiti hit with Zika virus outbreak: official

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© AFP/File | The Zika virus is a mosquito-borne ailment similar to dengue fever that is rapidly spreading through the Caribbean

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) - Haiti's health ministry said Friday the country has been hit by an outbreak of the Zika virus, a mosquito-borne ailment similar to dengue fever that is rapidly spreading through the Caribbean.

Health Minister Florence Duperval Guillaume confirmed the outbreak at a press conference, saying that she too, was recovering from a bout of the illness.

"Even I fell ill," the minister said, although she did not have the diagnosis confirmed by testing.

A health lab in Trinidad and Tobago confirmed on Thursday that five out of 11 Haitian blood samples tested positive for the disease -- a finding suggesting that it could be rampant in this impoverished nation.

There have been no known fatalities from Zika, but the virus is of particular concern to pregnant women, because it can lead to birth defects and miscarriage.

Zika is spread by the Aedes genus of mosquitoes, some varieties of which also spread dengue virus, yellow fever virus and Chikungunya.

A female mosquito bites an infected person and then carries the virus to the next person she bites.

Symptoms, which usually are relatively mild, can include fever, rash, conjunctivitis and headache.

In more serious cases, they can include muscle pain, swelling and an itchy rash.

Haitian officials have been taken to task for what critics said has been a slow response to the outbreak.

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skibboy
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05 February 2018

Children with 'normal' heads may have Zika brain damage: study

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© AFP/File | Since Zika erupted on a large scale in mid-2015, more than 1.5 million people have been infected with the virus, mostly in South America

PARIS (AFP) - Babies infected with Zika virus may suffer severe brain damage even if they do not display the signature symptom of an unusually small head, a study in monkeys suggested Monday.

This meant that brain-damaged children may be walking around undiagnosed and missing out on life-bettering therapy, scientists reported in the science journal Nature Medicine.

"Current criteria using head size to diagnose Zika-related brain injury fail to capture more subtle brain damage that can lead to significant learning problems and mental health disorders later in life," said the study's lead author Kristina Waldorf of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.

"We are diagnosing only the tip of the iceberg," she said in a statement.

Waldorf and a team analysed the brains of five growing macaque foetuses whose mothers they infected with Zika virus.

Macaques are considered a close animal model for human pregnancy.

Only one of the monkey foetuses displayed physical abnormalities early on, but later MRI scans revealed that the brains of four of the five were not developing as they should.

Particularly hard hit were regions of the brain where new brain cells are generated.

"Subtle damage caused by this virus during foetal development or childhood may not be apparent for years, but may cause neurocognitive delays in learning and increase the risk of developing neurological disorders such as schizophrenia and early dementia," said Waldorf's colleague and study co-author, Lakshmi Rajagopal.

"These findings further emphasise the urgency for an effective vaccine to prevent Zika virus infection."

Since Zika erupted on a large scale in mid-2015, more than 1.5 million people have been infected with the virus, mostly in Brazil and other countries in South America.

In most people, it causes no symptoms, or light ones such as an itchy rash.

But it is very dangerous for foetuses -- more than 2,200 babies have been born with Zika-related microcephaly, a shrinking of the brain and skull, according to the World Health Organization.

Many others died before birth.

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