Zika Virus Set To Spread Across Americas, Spurring Vaccine Hunt

[Purveyor]

The mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has been linked to brain damage in thousands of babies in Brazil, is likely to spread to all countries in the Americas except for Canada and Chile, the World Health Organization said on Monday.

Zika transmission has not yet been reported in the continental United States, although a woman who fell ill with the virus in Brazil later gave birth to a brain-damaged baby in Hawaii.

Brazil's Health Ministry said in November that Zika was linked to a fetal deformation known as microcephaly, in which infants are born with smaller-than-usual brains.

Brazil has reported 3,893 suspected cases of microcephaly, the WHO said last Friday, over 30 times more than in any year since 2010 and equivalent to 1-2 percent of all newborns in the state of Pernambuco, one of the worst-hit areas.

The Zika outbreak comes hard on the heels of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, demonstrating once again how little-understood diseases can rapidly emerge as global threats.

MORE...

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-zika-idUSKCN0V30U6

[valerief]

1. Hmm, link doesn't say why NOT Canada and NOT Chile.

on edit
At this link, it says

"Aedes mosquitoes—the main vector for Zika transmission—are present in all the region's countries except Canada and continental Chile,"

http://www.newser.com/story/219514/zika-virus-will-spread-across-much-of-the-americas-who.html
But can't mosquitoes fly over borders?

[lapfog_1]

2. just a guess, but the mosquito in question

probably only likes warmer climates.

which is to say that if you live on a high mountain top in Colorado... and never leave it... you might be safe from this virus vector.

That said, if there is a vaccine available someday, I'd get it.

[valerief]

3. So it's going to be in Argentina but not Chile.

Okay, maybe the bugs can't fly over the Andes.


Maybe Canada and Chile use certain pesticides other American countries don't.

[lapfog_1]

4. There is probably a map of the know habitats of this mosquito

and in the western hemisphere, Canada and Chile are probably the only 2 countries excluded completely from that habitat.

Doesn't mean that other regions (but not entire nations) aren't also excluded.

My example would be Alaska... probably completely excluded... but much of the US (lower 48) is not.