Global Health

submitted by Albert Gomez

cnn.com - by Debra Goldschmidt - July 29, 2016

(CNN) Four individuals in Miami-Dade and Broward counties have been infected with the Zika virus by local mosquitoes, Florida health officials said Friday.

These are the first known cases of the virus being transmitted by mosquitoes in the continental United States.

The unidentified individuals had not traveled to a Zika-affected area, had not had sexual contact with someone who had traveled to a place where the virus is circulating and had no other known exposure to the virus.

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crofsblogs.typepad.com - g1.globo.com - July 24, 2016

Transmission of Zika by house mosquito requires 'radical change' in control measures

Biologist Constância Ayres, of Fiocruz Pernambuco, has made an unprecedented discovery that has the potential to provide a leap in scientists' knowledge of the Zika virus, and radically change the Brazilian strategy of preventing it.

Ayres succeeded in finding for the first time, mosquitoes carrying the virus in nature.

On Thursday, Fiocruz officially announced that the mosquito Culex quinquefasciatus, known as muriçoca or house mosquito, can also transmit the virus that causes microcephaly and malformations in babies.

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via Google Translate

Zika transmission by common stilt requires 'radical change' in control measures

Scientists at Fiocruz Pernambuco met for the first time this type of mosquitoes carrying the Zika in nature - now analyze how effective it is in its transmission among humans.

cdc.gov - July 8, 2016

Summary

Establishing a functional incident management system (IMS) is important in the management of public health emergencies. In response to the 2014–2016 Ebola virus disease (Ebola) epidemic in West Africa, CDC established the Emergency Management Development Team (EMDT) to coordinate technical assistance for developing emergency management capacity in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. EMDT staff, deployed staff, and partners supported each country to develop response goals and objectives, identify gaps in response capabilities, and determine strategies for coordinating response activities. To monitor key programmatic milestones and assess changes in emergency management and response capacities over time, EMDT implemented three data collection methods in country: coordination calls, weekly written situation reports, and an emergency management dashboard tool. On the basis of the information collected, EMDT observed improvements in emergency management capacity over time in all three countries. The collaborations in each country yielded IMS structures that streamlined response and laid the foundation for long-term emergency management programs.

The mosquito that typically transmits Zika — the Aedes aegypti — does not usually range into northern Utah, but maps of the mosquito’s range can be unreliable and experts say it is theoretically possible that it has made it there. Credit Felipe Dana/Associated Press

nytimes.com - by Sabrina Tavernise - July 18, 2016

WASHINGTON — The Zika virus continues to surprise. On Monday, the Utah Department of Health reported that a new case had been diagnosed that did not appear to have be contracted through the two known sources of transmission: a mosquito bite or sexual contact.

The patient, who has since fully recovered, was a “family contact” who helped care for an older man who had become infected with the virus after traveling abroad. . . .

. . . The new case is something of a medical mystery: Zika is known to be transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito and through sex, but neither seemed to be a plausible explanation for what happened in Utah.

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