Health and Anthropology Zika Virus Essay Example

investigating reports made of potential infectious disease transmission (Berger, 2016). A pregnant woman who is infected can also transmit it to the newborn. Brazil and other American countries have had high risks of infection of the Zika virus (Tharpe et al., 2016).

An increase in the number of newborns who had microcephaly in October 2015 was reported in Pernambuco in Brazil. Some mothers of these newborns reported rashes during pregnancy. And by the end of that year, an estimate of 4180 cases of microcephaly was reported (Teixeira et al, 2016). This virus was seen to spread in other countries. 20 of the 27 states in Brazil and 3 of 18 countries in America were detected with the virus. This made the World Health Organization declare it as a public health emergency that needed urgent attention. Efforts were made with the need to determine the congenital infection risk, its vaccine and treatment, better diagnostic tests and as well as improved mosquito control method as they are the main cause of the virus (Tharpe et al., 2016). The WHO also pledged to provide training for the medical personnel that will conduct the research.

Just after the identification of the Zika virus in Brazil, it hardly took a year before the outbreak of an exanthemata’s disease in the northeastern region which was reported to be endorsed to the Zika virus (Cardoso et al., 2015). In April 2015, Zika was reported as the etiological agent of this disease. There has been a gradual rise in microcephaly of the newborns and those that were infected during the outbreak. Microcephaly causes defective brain development and thus causes an unusually small head at birth

which can be due to environmental or genetic cause (Salhan, 2016).

Investigations done until November 2015, still showed that Zika virus is neither a cause of microcephaly nor congenital infection. Zika virus is an RNA arbovirus of Flaviviridae family and is transmitted by the Aedes mosquito which is also the vector for dengue (Wong et al., 2016). Since they share the same vector, it has made it possible for Zika to establish itself in a country where dengue is prevalent and vice versa. Other viruses that are genetically related to Zika virus include West Nile, Japanese encephalitis viruses and yellow fever (Wong et al., 2016).

The transmission of the Zika virus is very high and is evident in the 2007 outbreak in Yap had its 73% of the total population being infected. In French Polynesia, a 12% clinical case was estimated in the 2013-2014 outbreak (Berger, 2016). The gradual increase of reported cases of microcephaly made the state secretariat for the health of Pernambuco in Brazil to inform the national surveillance system. Interviews were carried out to newborn mothers that were infected and also those who had reported of having rashes during pregnancy (Teixeira et al., 2016).

Women who delivered in October were in their first trimester of pregnancy at around January to March, which was the peak of the exanthematous disease. This was one of the proposals that showed that the Zika virus could cause microcephaly (Teixeira et al., 2016). There has also been other evidence of microcephaly resulting from Zika. An instance is Zika virus RNA was present in the tissue of the deceased and in the placenta of a woman who had a miscarriage in

her eighth week of pregnancy. The zika virus was also present in the amniotic fluid of two pregnant women whose fetus had microcephaly. This made Brazil declare Zika Virus as the cause of microcephaly.

Control measures have been implemented to reduce the infection and spread of this virus. Women have been highly advised to avoid pregnancy, and those that are pregnant have been advised to avoid mosquito bites by using repellents, shades on windows and also wear long-sleeved clothes (Tharpe et al., 2016). The World Health Organization have received valuable information from Brazil and other nations that participated in the emergency committee meeting. Scientists in Brazil have come up with the recognition of the unpredictable disease, the proposal of a credible hypothesis and the adoption of actions for public health and clinical support that were likely with the existing knowledge produced during the early months of the epidemic. There was also the need for the coordination of investigation to understand the association between the Zika virus and microcephaly (Mlakar et al., 2016).

The Ministry of Health in Brazil developed a website and made it accessible to its citizen. This website gives useful information and advice in a clear manner for easy understanding. The website also issues a weekly epidemiological bulletin about the Zika virus. Despite all these measures, the risks infection by pregnant women and transmission to their unborn is still high (Teixeira et al, 2016). Pregnancy termination in Brazil together with other countries are illegal regardless of the presence of abnormalities. This would have been much better if the validation of terminations debates were renewed to allow women decide on whether they would continue or disrupt

the pregnancy but with adequate medical care.

Aedes aegypti which is the main vector of both dengue and Zika is present in more than 100 countries and has been resistant to most of the control measures that have been adequately implemented. The dengue epidemic has been seen to spread greatly in Brazil and the rest of the world (Tharpe et al., 2016). An entomologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus which are the mosquitoes spreading the virus live in the Southern and the tropical parts of the United States, therefore, making the emergency of Zika virus in the United States a possibility (Service & Ashford, 2001).

There has been no significant evidence which shows that Aedes can reproduce in extremely cold climates. Zika diagnosis is still difficult (Petersen et al., 2016). This is because of the minimal number of laboratory confirmed cases, and it was also not possible to make precise estimates of the required number of microcephaly cases both in Brazil and America since the disease was not officially reportable case by case.

A substantive, lasting immunity to Zika virus has not yet been discovered. In case there is an outbreak of the virus, it would only affect the adults and with time it gets exhausted becoming a disease mainly of the children reducing the risks of microcephaly. This is how a lasting immunity to the Zika virus would be of great importance.

Production of robust evidence of the causal link between the Zika virus and microcephaly is still underway by researchers. This will help predict the risk of the congenital infection in pregnant women by week gestational infection

and help examine the biology and interaction between the virus and host and the physiopathology (Petersen et al., 2016). It will also help in establishing clinical progress of the newborns that are affected. Adoption of better diagnostic testing and vaccines are also another major concern by the researchers (Tharpe et al., 2016). This will help in the introduction of effective and safe drugs especially for pregnant women and also new technologies for the control of the vector.

All these undertakings require a joint effort of both the national and the international scientific communities, policy makers of the public health as well as the funders. Otherwise, the epidemic will continue evolving compromising the cognitive and psychomotor development of children’s generation.

References

Berger, S. A. (2016). Chikungunya and zika: Global status. Los Angeles, Calif: Gideon Informatics. Cardoso CW, Paploski IAD, Kikuti M, et al. Outbreak of exanthematous illness associated with Zika, chikungunya, and dengue viruses, Salvador, Brazil. Emerg Infect Dis. 2015;21(12):2274-2276.

McNeil, D. G. (2016). Zika: The emerging epidemic. Mlakar J, Korva M, Tul N, et al. Zika virus associated with microcephaly. N Engl J Med. 2016; Epub ahead of print February 10, 2016.

Nelson, S. (2016). Zika virus: Cracking the zika virus code. S.l: s.n.

Petersen L., Jamieson D., Powers M , & Honein A. (2016). Zika virus. New England Journal of Medicine, DOI
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Salhan, S. (2016). Textbook of obstetrics. S.l.: Jp Medical Pub.

Service, M. W., & Ashford, R. W. (2001). Encyclopedia of arthropod-transmitted infections of man and domesticated animals. Wallingford, Oxon, UK: CABI Pub.

Teixeira M.G, Conceicao D.A, Costa N., Oliveria D.E. & Rodrigues L.C (2016). The Epidemic of Zika Virus–Related Microcephaly in Brazil: Detection, Control, Etiology, and Future Scenarios. American journal of public health DOI: doi:10.2105/

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Tharpe, N., Farley, C. L., & Jordan, R. G. (2016). Clinical practice guidelines for midwifery & women's health.

Wong S.S, Poon Y, & Wong, S. C. Y. (2016). Zika virus infection the next wave after dengue? Journal of the Formosan Medical Association, Science Direct: doi:10.1016/j.jfma.2016.02.002