by KASEY LEE on MARCH 1, 2016
The Zika virus sweeping Latin America may be linked to the rare and sometimes deadly neurological disorder Guillain-Barre, scientists reported on Monday.
New research shows the suspected link to Guillain-Barre after scientists found Zika antibodies in the blood of 42 patients with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disorder that causes the body to attack the nervous system and can lead to paralysis or even death.
The World Health Organization declared the zika outbreak a global public health emergency after a drastic increase of neurological disorders in countries with Zika transmission, including microcephaly, a disorder that causes babies to be born with small, undeveloped heads.
Since the first Zika outbreak in Brazil in May 2015, it has spread to more than 43 countries mostly in Latin America. The WHO expect 3 to 4 million more cases of Zika virus this year.
So far there are over 107 confirmed cases of Zika virus in the United States, including Chicago and Philadelphia’s first confirmed case on Monday.
On Feb. 11, Maryland received its first confirmed case of a patient who contracted the virus after traveling from a Central American country but has fully recovered, Maryland health officials said.
Only one in five people show symptoms of the Zika virus, which can be mild like fever, rash and muscle pain, according to the CDC. The virus can be spread through sexual transmission and transmission via blood transfusion, but it appears to be rare, said Gretchen de Silva, Assistant Clinical Professor at the School of Public Health.
However, the Zika virus does not pose a threat to people in Maryland, with the exception of people who are traveling to affected areas where the virus is being transmitted, said Michael Grantham, a virologist and assistant research professor at the School of Public Health.
There are no cases of active transmission in Maryland because the mosquito which carry the virus, called Aedes aegypti, are found in warmer climates and usually can’t survive in winters below 50 degrees, said Grantham. Instead, the Aedes aegypti are found in southern states like Florida and can carry other diseases like the dengue virus and yellow fever.
With the Zika virus spreading to 34 countries, concern is growing as health officials investigate if there is a link between Zika infection and microcephaly. The CDC placed a travel warning for pregnant woman to avoid countries with Zika outbreak.
“There has been an increase in number of cases reported of microcephaly, especially in Brazil and French Polynesia, in the same areas where you have Zika virus transmissions,” said Grantham. “There was reports of zika virus being found in neural tissue of fetuses with microcephaly, but there’s still some distance to go before we can really say that this is what’s causing that.”
The suspected link began after Brazil saw a rapid increase of Zika virus transmission and over 3,500 microcephaly cases between October 2015 and January 2016, according to the CDC.
“There’s other possible causes of microcephaly that are being investigated, such as how one group suggested it may be linked to certain pesticide uses in the same area, and that may be increasing the risk of microcephaly,” said Grantham.
Groups like the Physicians in the Group-Sprayed Towns claimed that Brazil added a new pesticide called pyriproxyfen in 2014 to the water supply in areas where an increase of birth defects were also reported. Though Brazil immediately stopped using this pesticide in their drinking water, others such as groups from the WHO said the two are not related.
Without a cure for Zika, the international community has pushed to develop a vaccine, including a $56 million plan by the WHO to combat the Zika outbreak until June. On Monday, President Obama requested $1.8 billion from Congress in emergency funding which includes $828 million to the CDC.
“The average time from starting research on a vaccine to taking that vaccine to the general public is ten years,” said De Silva. “That is far too long of a process to respond to a health emergency. There are ways to fast track that process, as they are doing for Zika, but we are still talking about years.”
As the exact time until a Zika vaccine is unknown, the Brazilian health ministry has predicted it may take up to three to five years. Until then, the international community must focus on the future instead of only what’s happening right now, said De Silva.
“Since a vaccine is still quite ways off from being useful, what we really need now is to control this virus using public health intervention,” said Grantham. “We need to limit where these mosquitoes are breeding, we need to have insect repellent and things like that to prevent transmission, as opposed to trying to prevent transmission through a vaccine.”
Kasey Lee is a contributing writer at Plex. She studies multiplatform journalism and Asian American affairs at the University of Maryland.
