Disease

An Aedes Aegypti mosquito photographed on human skin. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Cell Host & Microbe - Wolbachia Blocks Currently Circulating Zika Virus Isolates in Brazilian Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes

Presence of Wolbachia bacterium in the insects seen limiting their ability to transmit the rapidly spreading virus

wsj.com - by REED JOHNSON, ROGERIO JELMAYER, and BETSY MCKAY - May 4, 2016

Introducing a common bacterium into a species of mosquitoes drastically limits the insects’ ability to transmit the dangerous Zika virus that has been spreading rapidly, according to researchers at Brazil’s leading medical-research institute.

In a new study published on Wednesday in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, researchers at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), in Rio de Janeiro, said their experiments have shown that injecting Aedes aegypti mosquito eggs with the Wolbachia bacterium makes the eventual adult mosquitoes highly resistant to the Zika virus, thereby limiting their ability to spread it.

Dallas County Health and Human Services confirms its first case of Zika virus transmitted through sexual activity

CLICK HERE - Dallas County Health and Human Services - DCHHS Reports First Zika Virus Case in Dallas County Acquired Through Sexual Transmission (2 page .PDF file)

cnn.com - by Sandee LaMotte - February 2, 2016

The first case of locally acquired Zika in the continental United States has occurred through sexual transmission in Texas, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

The case, announced by Dallas County health officials, involved a patient who had sex with someone who had recently returned from Venezuela infected with the mosquito-borne virus.

In a statement to CNN, the CDC said it confirmed the test results showing Zika present in the blood of a "nontraveler in the continental United States." They stressed that there was no risk to a developing fetus in this instance.

Based on that, the CDC says it will soon provide guidance on sexual transmission, with a "focus on the male sexual partners of women who are or who may be pregnant."

Dengue fever, chikungunya virus and Zika virus are spread by the bite of infected Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. PHOTO: UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/UIG/GETTY IMAGES

wsj.com - by BETSY MCKAY and REED JOHNSON - January 12, 2016

A Houston-area woman who traveled in November to El Salvador has been diagnosed with the Zika virus, public health officials said, raising concern that the mosquito-borne illness linked to a health crisis in Brazil could spread through the Americas. . . .

. . . The Texas case shows how the Zika virus is spreading after sparking an epidemic in Brazil that has led to an estimated 500,000 to 1.5 million cases, public health officials say.

Health officials in Brazil believe the virus is behind thousands of cases of microcephaly in that country—a condition in which infants are born with undersized brains and skulls—though it hasn’t before been linked to that rare condition. . . .

. . . U.S. officials say they are preparing for a possible influx of Zika this spring and summer, when populations of the mosquitoes that transmit it—Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus—flourish. . . .

. . . The department is also urging people to protect themselves from mosquitoes.

FOREIGN POLICY  by Siobhán O'Grady                        April 13, 2015
When the Ebola virus spread from Guinea to Sierra Leone and Liberia last spring, the initial international response was labeled a failure. By the time President Barack Obama ordered troops to the affected countries in September, more than 2,400 people were dead.

But in the United States, where major hospitals prepared for an outbreak, there were only four in-country diagnoses, one of which resulted in a death. And some see the urgency of that response as a lesson in how the government can prepare for another public health hazard: a bioterrorist attack.

Arizona Rep. Martha McSally chairs a House subcommittee that will examine over the next few months the threat of bioterrorist attacks and U.S. preparedness to respond to them. She told Foreign Policy that even if a disease outbreak and the use of a biological agent in a coordinated attack are not completely analogous, the response strains similar systems.

“We can learn lessons from other outbreaks that are naturally occurring,” she said. “We can identify weaknesses in our response and even if it wasn’t terrorism, it presses the system at the same level....”