If the disease gets established in monkeys or other wild primates, the animals may serve as reservoirs for future human outbreaks. But "spillback" of Zika virus into monkeys in South America could be just as dangerous. In areas where Zika infections are prevalent among humans and mosquitoes are abundant, the virus may be transmitted to wild primates, disease ecologist Barbara Han said February 6 at the American Society for Microbiology Biothreats meeting. "The possibility for close contact with humans is already there," Han said. Two contenders on her list of at-risk species — black-striped capuchin monkeys and common marmosets — had been found by other researchers to be infected with Zika viruses matching the human strain in Brazil.
While there is no treatment for Zika, PAHO said researchers are working on vaccines, with five potential vaccine candidates headed for clinical trials. To date 200,000 cases have been confirmed, more than half from Brazil, were 2,618 children born with confirmed congenital syndrome associated with Zika virus infection. PAHO said experts now consider Zika to be a long-term public health challenge, following the declaration by WHO's Emergency Committee on Zika that the epidemic's emergency phase was over. Globally, the risk assessment of Zika has not changed, and the virus continues to spread geographically to areas where competent vectors are present, PAHO said. According to PAHO's latest update, 48 countries and territories in the Americas have confirmed transmission of Zika virus disease through mosquitoes since 2015 and five countries in the Americas have reported sexually transmitted Zika cases.
collected by :Lucy William
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