FG take fight to Zika Virus

As part of preventive measures
against possible outbreak of Zika virus,
the Federal Government says it has put
measures in place to ensure that the virus
is not transmitted by
mosquitoes in the
country.
This is coming as the Director General of
the World Health Organisation, WHO, Dr.
Margaret Chan is convening an
International Health Regulations
Emergency Committee on Zika virus today
in Geneva, Switzerland, to ascertain
whether the Zika virus outbreak
constitutes a public health emergency of
international concern.
Meanwhile, German researchers say they
have developed a diagnostic test that can
accurately detect the Zika virus in
humans. Previously, there was no way to
diagnose the illness apart from
appearance of the distinctive symptoms.
In a telephone chat with Vanguard, the
Director-General of the Nigerian Centre
for Disease Control, NCDC, Prof
Abdulsalam Nasiru, said already the
Federal Government has put in place
mechanisms to stop the Zika virus from
entering the country.
Part of the measures includes conducting
epidemiological tests on mosquitoes to
ensure they do not carry the virus.
According to him, as a follow up, there
has been regular monitoring already and
a meeting of stakeholders comprising
experts on public health among others
would be convene on Wednesday in
Abuja.
Over the weekend, the Minister of Health,
Prof Isaac Adewole, issues a travel alert
to pregnant women from Nigeria not to
travel to Brazil and other Latin American
countries.
Briefing the WHO Executive Board during
its 138th session, Chan said the level of
alarm as extremely high. The Director
General noted that WHO is generally
worried about the rapidly evolving
situation and decisions are expected to
be taken at the meeting to step up
international efforts to fight the threat.
The Zika virus has been tied to severe
birth defects, including babies born with
brain damage to infected mothers. There
is no vaccine that can prevent the
infection and very few tests available to
detect it.
Worse still, people in most countries have
never been exposed to the virus before, so
there’s very little natural immunity to the
virus in the general population.
The mosquito that carries the Zika virus,
the Aedes aegypti mosquito, is the same
mosquito that spreads the Chugwuniya
fever and the yellow fever diseases, and is
found in most parts of the world including
Nigeria. A species of the same mosquito
carries Dengue fever.
In recent times, public health officials
around the world have expressed concern
about the fast-spreading Zika virus
Speaking on the Zika threat, Assistant
Director-General of the WHO, Dr. Bruce
Aylward, said 3-4 million Zika infections
in the Americas over the next 12 months.
In her contribution, Principal Deputy
Director of the Centres for Diseases
Control and Prevention, CDC, Dr. Anne
Schuchat, noted that even though most
people aren’t in any serious danger from
Zika, the worrisome aspect to health
officials, is that “increasing lines of
evidence suggest that some women
infected with Zika during their
pregnancies may go on to deliver a baby
with a serious brain injury.”