Over Wynwood, the Miami neighborhood where Zika gained a foothold in the continental United States, low flying planes have been spraying naled, a tightly controlled pesticide often used as a last resort. It appears to be working, killing at least 90 percent of the target mosquitoes. Across the Biscayne Bay in Miami Beach, wind and high-rise buildings make aerial spraying challenging.
By Timothy Gardner WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two senior Obama administration officials wrote congressional leaders on Tuesday to urge legislation be passed to fund the fight against the Zika virus, as concerns mount the United States will soon face locally transmitted cases of the disease. U.S. health officials concluded this month that the virus, spreading rapidly in the Americas, was a cause of microcephaly, a rare birth defect defined by unusually small head size that can hamper development. Zika is also linked to other health problems.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Zika may stand convicted of causing devastating birth defects but there still are lots of questions about how much of a threat the virus poses to pregnant women, and what to do about it.
By Pedro Fonseca RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Authorities in Brazil said on Friday Zika has been detected in patients' saliva and urine, adding to the concern over the spread of the virus, while U.S. officials offered new guidance on sex for people returning from Zika-hit regions. Zika, linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil, is primarily transmitted through mosquito bites, but word surfaced this week of infections through sex and blood transfusions, and news of the presence of the virus in the saliva and urine of two patients prompted new worries. In fact, the president of the Brazilian federal biomedical research institution that made the announcement urged pregnant women not to kiss strangers during the country's free-wheeling Carnival celebrations.
Sierra Leone's Health Ministry said on Thursday it was investigating a suspected Ebola death in Tonkolili district, hours after the World Health Organization said transmission of the virus in West Africa had ended. “A suspected Ebola death has been reported in Tonkolili district today,” said a note sent by the ministry to health officials in the country and seen by Reuters.
By James Harding Giahyue MONROVIA (Reuters) – Liberia has placed 153 people under surveillance as it seeks to control a new Ebola outbreak in the capital more than two months after the country was declared free of the virus, health officials said. The first of the new patients was a 15-year-old boy called Nathan Gbotoe from Paynesville, a suburb east of the capital Monrovia. “We have three confirmed cases and have listed 153 contacts, and we have labeled them as high, medium and low in terms of the risk,” Liberia's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Francis Kateh told Reuters late on Saturday.
Six hunters in the Democratic Republic of Congo who fell sick and were suspected to have Ebola have tested negative for the virus, the health minister said on Saturday. The government and World Health Organization investigated a possible outbreak about 270 km (170 miles) northeast of the capital when the hunters developed Ebola-like symptoms after eating an antelope that appeared to be sick when they killed it. “All of the samples are negative … There is not an Ebola epidemic,” Health Minister Felix Kabange said in an interview on state-run television.
A British military healthcare worker was flown back to England from Sierra Leone on Saturday following a needle-stick injury sustained while treating a person with Ebola, the Public Health England (PHE) service said on Saturday. The patient, who has not been named, has been taken for testing to the Royal Free Hospital in London. “They are likely to have been exposed to the Ebola virus but, at this time, have not been diagnosed with Ebola and do not have symptoms,” PHE said in a statement. The Royal Free, Britain's main center for Ebola cases, also successfully treated British aid worker William Pooley who contracted the virus in West Africa last year.
Two people have died of the H7N9 strain of avian flu in China's eastern province of Fujian, state media said Saturday, quoting local health officials. Fujian has confirmed 15 cases since the start of 2015, Xinhua news agency reported. Another human infection was reported in the adjacent province of Jiangxi on Friday, Xinhua said, while both the municipality of Shanghai and neighbouring Zhejiang province have reported cases “this winter”. Cases of the virus accelerated in China in 2014, with statistics compiled by health authorities in Beijing showing 310 cases were diagnosed on the mainland from January until December 10, including 132 deaths.
Some doctors in Tennessee are asking patients with flu-like symptoms not to come into their offices to avoid spreading the virus to other patients in their waiting room.Instead, these doctors are evaluating patients over the phone or on computers as part of something called “telemedicine.””If you're really feeling crummy and you have the symptoms of influenza, your chances of having influenza are very, very high — over 90 percent,” Dr. William Schaffner, chair of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. …