https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/25/colombia-declares-end-to-zika-epidemic
Colombia declares end to Zika epidemic as spread of virus levels off
by Sibylla Brodzinsky in Bogotá
Monday 25 July 2016
Colombia has declared an end to its Zika epidemic with the spread of the virus leveling off in the country after infecting nearly 100,000 people – even as it continues to sweep through other areas of Latin America, and is keeping some athletes away from the Olympic Games in Brazil.
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Colombia has closely monitored 17,730 pregnant women believed to have been infected with Zika. Of those 12,587 have given birth and health officials have confirmed 21 cases of Zika-related microcephaly among the newborns. One hundred and sixty other cases are still under study.
The Colombian government originally projected it could see some 500-600 cases of Zika-related microcephaly but later revised the projection downward and maintains an estimate of 100-300 cases.
With the end of the epidemic phase, Colombia has lifted the recommendation made at the peak of the epidemic that women postpone pregnancy.
The surge in birth defects has been much more noticeable in Brazil, the country hardest-hit by Zika, with almost 166,000 cases this year. Health officials in that country have confirmed more than 1,700 cases of microcephaly related to Zika infections in mothers.
However, nearly 90% of those birth defects have been concentrated in an area in the north-eastern tip of the country, leading researchers at Brazil’s health minister to suspect that other factors are in play in the rise in microcephaly cases, according to the journal Nature.
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http://www.nature.com/news/brazil-asks-whether-zika-acts-alone-to-cause-birth-defects-1.20309
Brazil asks whether Zika acts alone to cause birth defects
Puzzling distribution of cases suggests Zika is not the only factor in reported microcephaly surge.
by Declan Butler
25 July 2016
Government researchers in Brazil are set to explore the country's peculiar distribution of Zika-linked microcephaly — babies born with abnormally small heads.
Zika virus has spread throughout Brazil, but extremely high rates of microcephaly have been reported only in the country's northeast. Although evidence suggests that Zika can cause microcephaly, the clustering pattern hints that other environmental, socio-economic or biological factors could be at play.
“We suspect that something more than Zika virus is causing the high intensity and severity of cases,” says Fatima Marinho, director of information and health analysis at Brazil’s ministry of health. If that turns out to be true, it could change researchers' assessment of the risk that Zika poses to pregnant women and their children.
The idea has long been on Brazilian researchers' radar. "This is being discussed in almost every scientific meeting," says Lavinia Schüler-Faccini, a researcher at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. But the enquiry marks the first time that scientists at the health ministry have taken up the hypothesis.
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"I think they may be on to something," says Linda Birnbaum, director of the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Zika was discovered in 1947 and hadn’t been implicated in birth defects until now; and current strains of the virus don’t show any significant mutations that might have increased its virulence. "So why now?" she asks.
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I
really wish another DU member would post this material.
= new reply since forum marked as read
