Zika ‘Spreading Explosively’
OFW deployment to affected Lat-Am countries continues – DOLE
by Charissa M. Luci & Samuel Medenilla
February 1, 2016
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said yesterday the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Latin American (Lat-Am) countries with cases of Zika Virus Disease (ZVD) will continue for now despite the warning of the World Health Organization (WHO) that the virus is “spreading explosively” in the Americas.
Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz disclosed that Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) is still waiting for the necessary notification from concerned agencies before it could stop OFWs from heading into the 23 ZVD-affected countries in the said region.
“Will wait for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Department of Health (DOH) to issue the (required) alert signal,” Baldoz said.
The DOH has advised the public, especially pregnant women to seek immediate medication should they experience symptoms of Zika virus infection, dengue, chikungunya, or any other illnesses.
“Whether it be Zika or dengue or any other form magpatingin kaagad lalo na kung pregnant (seek consultation especially if pregnant),” said DOH spokesperson Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy in an interview.
He said that while the Zika virus has not yet reached Philippine soil, it is important to be pro-active in keeping the environment clean so that there will be no breeding grounds for these disease-carrying organisms.
Transmission can possibly happen if a mosquito bites a healthy person after biting a Zika-infected person.
In terms of severity, the symptoms of Zika are more serious compared to dengue. These include rashes, fever, influenza-like and conjunctivitis (redness of eyes). However, the DOH said that Zika virus has a lower mortality rate as compared to dengue. What is alarming about the Zika virus is its capability to cause microcephaly among babies born by infected women. Babies suffering from microcephaly have small brains and shorter lives.
The WHO will convene its International Health Regulations Emergency Committee in Geneva on Monday to discuss the prevalence of Zika virus.
“The Committee will meet on Monday, Feb. 1, in Geneva to ascertain whether the outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern,” according to a statement released by the WHO Regional office in Manila.
Aside from the possible declaration of a public health emergency, the meeting will also discuss the scaling up and strengthening of surveillance systems in affected countries, address critical gaps in scientific knowledge about the virus, development of vaccines, and improving diagnostic tests.
The House Independent Bloc also asked the DOH to immediately and pro-actively respond to the threats of the Zika virus and give the public clear guidelines on how to avoid the dreaded mosquito-borne disease.
Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, who heads the bloc is counting on the heath authorities to “draw up a cohesive response to the virus” and put in place necessary measures against the virus after a Filipina is reportedly under observation in a hospital in Latin America for suspected virus inspection.
The POEA could only issue a deployment ban once DFA raises a crisis alert level 2 or the restriction phase for a specified country.
While there is no local travel and deployment restrictions issued against countries with ZVD cases, DOH urged pregnant women to postpone their trips in the said region as a precautionary measure.
MOSQUITO VS MOSQUITO
More than 100,000 genetically engineered mosquitoes could become one of the newest weapons in the perennial battle between humans and mosquitoes, which kill hundreds of thousands of people a year by transmitting malaria, dengue fever and other devastating diseases and have been called the deadliest animal in the world.
“When it comes to killing humans, no other animal even comes close,” Bill Gates, whose foundation fights disease globally, has written.
Experts say that new methods are needed because the standard practices — using insecticides and removing the standing water where mosquitoes breed — have not proved sufficient.
“After 30 years of this kind of fight, we had more than two million cases of dengue last year in Brazil,” said Dr. Artur Timerman, an infectious disease expert in São Paulo. “New approaches are critically necessary.”
But the new efforts have yet to be proved, and it would take some years to scale them up to a meaningful level. An alternative to mosquito control, a vaccine against Zika, is not expected to be available soon.
So for now, experts say, the best modes of prevention are to intensify use of the older methods of mosquito control and to lower the risk of being bitten using repellents and by wearing long sleeves.
Women are being advised to not get pregnant and to avoid infested areas if pregnant, since the virus is strongly suspected of causing babies to be born with abnormally small heads and damaged brains.
The main mosquito that transmits Zika virus — and also dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever — is Aedes aegypti, a particularly wily foe.
The genetically engineered Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were developed by Oxitec, a British company, to fight dengue, but would also work to curtail the spread of Zika.
Since last April, the mosquitoes have been released in one neighborhood of Piracicaba populated by about 5,000 people. By the end of 2015, there was a reduction in wild mosquito larvae — as opposed to larvae inheriting the lethal gene — of 82 percent, the company said.
WHERE ZIKA STARTED
It was in the thick woodland of Zika forest, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Uganda’s capital Kampala, that the mosquito-borne Zika virus was first discovered in 1947.
Days ago, the tropical Zika forest was a little-known reserve visited only by bird watchers and scientists.
‘’Students come every week, coming from all over the world,’’ said Mukisa, 50, proudly showing off a guest book with signatures and comments from the US, Canada, France and Germany, among other countries. “There are so many types of trees, and all sorts of birds.’’
The “most prominent visitor’’ to Zika was the former US President Jimmy Carter ‘’who came on a bird watching tour.’’
MORE CASES
BOGOTA (AFP) – Colombia announced Saturday that more than 2,000 pregnant women have been infected with Zika, amid growing concern about the spread of the virus suspected of causing irreversible brain damage in newborns.
The National Health Institute reported that Colombia now has 20,297 cases of Zika infection, including 2,116 in expectant mothers.
The latest numbers, reported in the institute’s epidemiological bulletin, make Colombia the second most affected country in the region, after Brazil, the epicenter of the outbreak.
On Friday, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff vowed to “win the war” against the virus, but some experts criticized her government’s response and warned the Olympics could fuel the disease’s spread.
Rousseff’s comments came on the same day she and US President Barack Obama agreed to launch a high-level bilateral group to develop a vaccine.
At least 105 cases of infection with the Zika virus have been confirmed in Guatemala amid an outbreak in both Americas, an official from the Health Ministry told local media Saturday.
A total of 200 suspected cases of Zika were registered in the Central American country, including over 60 cases in 2015, epidemiologist Judith Garcia told the national newspaper Prensa Libre. (With reports from NYT, AFP, PNA/Sputnik)