Global Health

CLICK HERE - CDC Concludes Zika Causes Microcephaly and Other Birth Defects

CLICK HERE - NEJM - Zika Virus and Birth Defects — Reviewing the Evidence for Causality

It’s the first time US researchers have confirmed the link

theverge.com - by Loren Grush - April 13, 2016

For the first time, US disease experts have agreed that the mosquito-borne Zika virus does indeed cause babies to be born with abnormally small heads — a condition known as microcephaly. Until now, the two conditions were linked — but experts didn’t know for sure if Zika caused the brain-damaged condition. After reviewing existing data about Zika, researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have declared in the New England Journal of Medicine that the relationship was, as suspected, causal.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is to announce Wednesday it will transfer leftover money from the largely successful fight against Ebola to combat the growing threat of the Zika virus, congressional officials say.

Roughly 75 percent of the $600 million or so would be devoted to the Centers for Disease Control, which is focused on research and development of anti-Zika vaccines, treating those infected with the virus and combating the mosquitoes that spread it. The rest would go to foreign aid accounts to fight the virus overseas.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter before the White House announcement.

reuters.com - (Reporting by Mai Nguyen and Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Michael Perry) - April 4, 2016

Two Vietnamese women have contracted the Zika virus which has been linked to thousands of suspected cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect, in Brazil, and are the first Zika infections in Vietnam, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

A 64-year-old woman in the beach city of Nha Trang and another woman, 33, in Ho Chi Minh City fell sick in late March, and three rounds of tests have confirmed they are Zika-positive, the ministry said in a statement.

The two patients are in stable condition while no further infections among their relatives and neighbors have been found, the ministry said.

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