US health officials have concluded that infection with the Zika virus in pregnant women causes birth defect microcephaly and other brain abnormalities in babies."It is now clear that Zika virus does cause microcephaly," said Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The first U.S. Zika-related death was confirmed by health officials in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The man who was in his seventies died due to a rare Zika complication known as Thrombocytopenic purpura, an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks the blood cells known as platelets instead of the Zika virus—killing the host.
The Caribbean island has reported 683 confirmed cases of Zika, including 65 pregnant women with symptoms of the virus, according to the CDC.
Of the confirmed cases, five patients developed Guillain-Barre syndrome and were hospitalized. Zika first began spreading in Puerto Rico in December.
The New York Times reports on why Puerto Rico is so vulnerable to Zika.
The outbreak is expected to be worse here than anywhere else in the country. The island, a warm, wet paradise veined with gritty poverty, is the ideal environment for the mosquitoes carrying the virus. The landscape is littered with abandoned houses and discarded tires that are perfect breeding grounds for the insects. Some homes and schools lack window screens and air-conditioning, exposing residents to almost constant bites.
The economy is in shambles, and thousands of civic workers needed to fight mosquitoes have been laid off. The chemical most often used against the adult pests no longer works, and the one needed to control their larvae has been pulled from the market by regulators.
A quarter of the island’s 3.5 million people will probably get the Zika virus within a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and eventually 80 percent or more may be infected.
“I’m very concerned,” Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the C.D.C. director, said in an interview after a recent three-day visit to Puerto Rico. “There could be thousands of infections of pregnant women this year.”
The poor in Puerto Rico live in housing that often does not have window screening. A looming disaster will unfold as mosquitos will have easy access to human blood.
Cuba has reported its first case, and mosquitos infected with the virus will now begin to transmit the virus to the population.
Havana is 90 miles from Key West and Florida Governor Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency in four counties with confirmed cases. Like San Juan, Key West, Miami and Fort Lauderdale all have open doors and windows in restaurants and bars during the tourist season when the weather is pleasant. Unlike the poor in the Caribbean and South America, window screening and air conditioning are readily available during the steamy and rainy months.
The Gulf Coast, a region of 60 million people, could find itself unprepared and at ground zero for a mosquito-borne Zika epidemic. The CDC is very concerned and believes that May, June, and into the summer months is when we could start seeing Zika transmission on the Gulf Coast. And it could be very bad. Dr. Peter Hotez, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the Baylor College of Medicine National School of Tropical Medicine—who believes that the island of Haiti will be decimated as well as many poor areas in the Gulf coast—explains.
Poverty is important because of the fact that people live in poor-quality dwellings without window screens, or holes in the window screens — I think that is a big one. I think another big one is the fact that it is not just the window screens but the immediate environment around the house in these poor areas — you see environmental degradation, you see uncollected garbage, you see standing bodies of water such as undrained ditches as well as in containers, discarded tires along the side of the road — and so these are the reasons, because all of them are perfect for harboring the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
So it is the poor areas I am most concerned about, which includes Haiti, for instance. I think Haiti is going to get decimated. I am very worried about Haiti. I’m worried about the whole region, but especially about places like Haiti, for the same reasons I am worried about the Gulf Coast, especially the poor areas. Some of the historic wards of Houston — like the 5th ward, Sunnyside — all these places are vulnerable, and that is part of the conversation that you are not really hearing. You are hearing mostly that the West, particularly the U.S., is wealthy, and therefore we don’t have to worry, but I put an asterisk on that and say yes, but the Gulf Coast has an extreme level of poverty that we don’t see in many other parts of the country, and that is uniquely vulnerable to Zika.
In Brazil, a study in Brazil that suggests that Zika can cause paralysis.
Meanwhile, doctors are also looking into whether Zika caused of a spike in Guillain-Barre cases that occurred in Brazil during Zika outbreaks.
Guillain-Barre syndrome is an unusual illness in which a person's immune system damages peripheral nerve cells, causing muscle weakness and paralysis. Most cases are in adults. Symptoms usually start in the legs and can last a few weeks or several months. Most people fully recover, but some have permanent damage. An estimated 1 in 20 people with the condition die, usually when the paralysis affects muscles that control breathing.
The CDC reports on a case of male-to-male sexual transmission of the Zika Virus in Texas.
In January 2016, after notification from a local health care provider, an investigation by Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS) identified a case of sexual transmission of Zika virus between a man with recent travel to an area of active Zika virus transmission (patient A) and his nontraveling male partner (patient B). At this time, there had been one prior case report of sexual transmission of Zika virus (1). The present case report indicates Zika virus can be transmitted through anal sex, as well as vaginal sex. Identification and investigation of cases of sexual transmission of Zika virus in nonendemic areas present valuable opportunities to inform recommendations to prevent sexual transmission of Zika virus.
The sports world is beginning to cancel events in Puerto Rico and elsewhere in Latin America.
Major League Baseball and the players' association has cancelled games that were set to be played in San Juan between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Miami Marlins. Players from both teams had expressed fear in traveling to the island.
The Knicks, Carmelo Anthony who is expected to be the first American basketball athlete to win 3 gold medals in Rio this summer, had a eye popping moment when he was asked whether he will go to the games.
“I don’t even know what a Zika Virus is, but I’ll tell you what: it scares me when I hear about it. But I’ll see pictures and you just talked about it. With Brazil, they’re trying to impeach their president. There’s so much that goes into that decision…Safety is foremost.”
The US National Soccer Team has fears of traveling to Puerto Rico and may cancel their participation in the pre-Copa America Centenario.
The Brazilian government has hired more than 200,000 people to help educate the population and assist them by cleaning areas of stagnant water. But in the midst of an epidemic, people throughout the world will be reassessing their decision to travel to the 2016 games. The athletes, most of whom are in their teens, twenties and thirties are or will be planning families, they have every reason to be fearful.
Accuweather reports on what to expect on the weather conditions during July and August in Rio.
"Humidity levels are slightly lower than in the summer, but it's still considered a tropical climate, and therefore it can still be classified as being humid most days," Miller said.
However, even though it will be Brazil's winter, temperatures will remain high enough for mosquitoes to complete development, according to Brown.
Even the smallest amounts of water can still bring mosquitoes. The Aedes aegypti larvae can complete development in less than a teaspoon of water, experts say.
Miller said that rainfall is at a minimum in July in Rio and only slightly higher in August, typically increasing toward the end of the month.
"Rainfall averages only about 3.5-4 inches (approximately 90-100 mm) during those two months combined," Miller said.
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