The Zika Virus Threat

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The Zika Virus Threat

February 5th, 2016

Awake Goy

The mosquito-borne virus, Zika, is linked to a serious birth defect.

On January 15, 2016, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a level-two travel alert for travel to Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, due to an outbreak of the Zika virus. According to the CDC, the Zika virus is a mosquito-borne virus that is named for the Zika forest in Uganda, where the virus was first discovered in 1947. The level-two alert (the highest is three) means that travelers to these regions should “practice enhanced precautions” to protect against mosquito bites.

Symptoms of the disease are “usually mild” and may include rashes, fever, headaches, pain behind the eyes, and joint pain; only one in five people infected will develop symptoms. Currently there is no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat Zika.

The alarm about Zika stems from the fact that it has been linked to microcephaly, a rare birth defect in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and incomplete brain development. The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that children with microcephaly “may develop convulsions and suffer physical and learning disabilities as they grow older”.

The Zika red-flag has been raised because the link between Zika and microcephaly has become increasingly more imposing. For example: In Brazil there were 20 times more microcephaly cases in 2015 than in 2014—This is significant because the first case of Zika in Brazil was reported in May, 2015.

The CDS indicates that since its discovery in Uganda in 1947, the Zika virus has traveled to other African countries, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and South America. In December, 2015, there was evidence that the virus had reached Puerto Rico. However, other than Puerto Rico, Zika has yet to infect anyone while dwelling within the United States—so far all the victims of the disease in the U.S. caught the virus elsewhere and came back to the country infected with it. To date, the Zika virus has spread to 14 countries in North and South America, and its “spread to other countries in the region is likely”, the CDC advisory noted.

Anthony Fauci and David Morens of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in an article in The New England Journal of Medicine, wrote that there may be a developing pattern in which relatively unknown and rare viruses that were fairly geographically restricted suddenly spread to far-reaching areas. They warn that “in our human-dominated world, urban crowding, constant international travel, and other human behaviors combined with human-caused microperturbations in ecologic balance can cause innumerable slumbering infectious agents to emerge unexpectedly.”

In a February 2^nd CNN report, Dr. Tom Frieden, Director of the CDC, offered assurance that most people in the contiguous United States are unlikely to ever come into contact with the Zika virus. However, he cautioned that “people living in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Caribbean or Pacific territories, and Central and South America are likely to see an increasing spread of Zika.” He advised women in those areas who are pregnant to take care to protect themselves from mosquito bites. And he advised pregnant women outside the identified areas to postpone travel plans to those locations.

Dr. Frieden concludes by stating: “There is no way to predict when or where health threats will emerge, but the plain fact is that we will continue to see new infectious disease threats such as Zika. The CDC’s laser focus is protecting the health, safety and security of Americans; learning more about Zika and fighting it is a top priority.”