The World Health Organisation has declared the Zika virus outbreak an international emergency.
It came amid mounting fears the mosquito-borne disease is linked to birth defects and spreading rapidly. The WHO said the spread of the Zika virus in the Americas was an “extraordinary event” and there could be up to four million cases in the region this year.
Brazilian researchers are convinced Zika is the cause of 3,700 confirmed and suspected cases of newborns with brain defects in South America’s largest country, said Health Minister Marcelo Castro. Mr Castro said the virus cannot be transmitted from person to person, only by mosquito, but claimed the epidemic is worse than believed because in 80% of the cases the infected people have no symptoms.
The Brazilian doctor who first spotted the possible link has warned of a second wave of malformed babies in her country by the end of 2016, if the infection’s not contained. Dr Vanessa van der Linden, a paediatric neurologist in Recife in north-east Brazil, said she noticed a dramatic increase in the number of babies suffering from microcephaly or small head last August.
Many of the mothers had also contracted the Zika virus in the first few months of pregnancy. He said: “In the same day in August, I saw three patients with microcephaly…that is with 27cm or 28cm head circumference”, she told Sky News (the normal circumference for a newborn is 34-37cm).
“And I thought, this is something strange because it’s not normal.” The infection is usually mild, causing flu-like symptoms and sometimes a rash. Brazil first suffered from an outbreak around this time last year.
“We then noticed about six months later, after the Zika epidemic, there was a big rise in the number of babies being born with these brain abnormalities,” Dr van der Linden said.
Many mothers complained of having Zika-symptoms in the first few months of pregnancy.
Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff has declared ‘war’ on the Aedes aegypti mosquito. The WHO last declared a global health emergency over the ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014. Zika was first identified in 1947 in a Ugandan forest. But until last year, it was not believed to cause any serious effects as about 80% of infected people never experience symptoms.