Brazil; UN health chief calls for fight against Zika

Continuing efforts to bolster the
international response to Zika,
World Health Organization
( WHO) Director-General
Margaret Chan arrived today in
the northeast of Brazil to visit
the area most affected by
neurological disorders suspected
of being linked to the virus,
including microcephaly in
babies.
The top United Nations health
official visited a hospital and
clinical research centre in
Recife, the capital of Pernambuco state where a
significant number of pregnant women who contracted the Zika virus during pregnancy have
delivered babies with microcephaly.
“A coordinated international response is needed
to improve surveillance, the detection of
infections, congenital malformations, and
neurological complications, to intensify the
control of mosquito populations, and to expedite
the development of diagnostic tests and vaccines
to protect people at risk, especially during
pregnancy,” Dr. Chan said.
Last year, as Zika was spreading through
northeastern Brazil, thousands of children with
suspected microcephaly were born in the region.
Though many causes of microcephaly exist,
suspicion has focused on Zika because the
incidence of such cases has increased in areas
where the virus has taken hold. In addition,
several countries, including Brazil, have
increased reports of Guillain-Barré Syndrome,
a neurological disorder that can result in
paralysis.
Dr. Carissa Etienne, Director of the Pan
American Health Organization (PAHO) is also
taking part in the visit, which will contribute
to an ongoing assessment of the Zika virus
situation and response.
Last week, WHO launched its global Strategic
Response Framework and Joint Operations Plan
focusing on mobilizing and coordinating
partners, experts and resources to respond to the
spread of Zika virus and the neonatal
malformations and neurological conditions
associated with it.
As part of the high-level visit to Brazil, Dr.
Chan has visited Brazil’s National Center for
Risk and Disaster Management (CENAD) in
Brasilia and met with President Dilma
Rousseff.
At the beginning of February, following a first
meeting of the International Health Regulations
Emergency Committee on Zika, Dr Chan
announced that the cluster of microcephaly
cases and neurological disorders reported in
Brazil, following a similar cluster in French
Polynesia in 2014, constituted a public health
emergency of international concern.
The Committee advised, however, that there was
no public health justification for restrictions on
travel or trade to prevent the spread of Zika
virus.
Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy
Agency ( IAEA ) today announced plans to
facilitate the transfer of a nuclear technique to
Brazil to help the country’s battle with the
Zika virus by supressing the mosquito
populations that transmit the disease.
A cobalt-60 gamma cell irradiator is expected to
be transferred to the Brazilian non-profit Sterile
Insect Technique (SIT) centre Moscamed in
Juazeiro, Bahia, the IAEA announced at an
expert meeting in the Brazilian capital of
Brasilia.
It could, in a few months, help scale up the
production of sterile male mosquitoes to be
released in selected areas, and they, once
released, mate with wild females who do not
produce any offspring, effectively suppressing
the insect population over time, experts said,
agreeing that SIT was an efficient, safe,
environmentally neutral and sustainable method
to control mosquito populations and fight
vector-borne diseases like Zika and dengue fever.
“Our discussion summarized the current status
of all methods that can be used to fight
disease-transmitting mosquitoes,” said Marc
Vreysen, who heads the insect pest control
laboratory at the Division of Nuclear
Techniques in Food and Agriculture, a shared
office between the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization ( FAO ) and IAEA.
Moscamed has long experience in applying SIT
to fight insect pests, and was one of the first
facilities to mass rear sterilized mosquitoes in
the world,” said its Director, Jair Virginio.
“The irradiator would allow our facility to
produce up to 12 million sterilized male Aedes
aegypti mosquitos per week, reaching up to 750
000 people in 15 municipalities in the Brazilian
states of Bahia and Pernambuco, which have
been particularly hard-hit by Zika.”
The announcement was made, as international
experts from 12 countries gathered in Brasilia
for a two-day meeting to share experiences on
the use of SIT as part of a comprehensive
approach to control mosquito populations along
with other methods, such as site inspections
and fumigation.
The meeting, organized in cooperation with
Brazilian Ministry of Health, is part of the
IAEA’s response to the current Zika outbreak
in Central and South America. The World
Health Organization (WHO) declared Zika an
international public health emergency earlier
this month.