Author Topic: Utah Zika Virus Infection Mystery (Read 1976 times)

Croix de Fer · « **on:** July 23, 2016, 12:19:18 PM »

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Scientists are bewildered by a new and disturbing development involving the Zika virus in Utah, where a patient who contracted the virus recently died. Officials announced on Monday they’re investigating how a person who cared for the patient who died also became infected.

“Based on what is known now, the person has not recently traveled to an area with Zika and has not had sex with someone who is infected with Zika or who has traveled to an area with Zika,” the Utah Department of Health wrote in a statement on Monday. “In addition, there is no evidence at this time that mosquitoes that commonly spread Zika virus are in Utah.”

The department described the deceased as someone who had “a uniquely high amount of virus in the blood.” The death marked the first known Zika fatality in the United States.

“Our knowledge of this virus continues to evolve and our investigation is expected to help us better understand how this individual became infected,” said Angela Dunn, the deputy state epidemiologist at the Utah Department of Health. “Based on what we know so far about this case, there is no evidence that there is any risk of Zika virus transmission among the general public in Utah.”

So far, the Centers for Disease Control has recorded 1,306 cases of the Zika virus in the United States, including 346 cases among pregnant women. Although the virus can have grave outcomes for children and adults, infection is especially concerning for pregnant women. Zika has been linked to birth defects like microcephaly, in which babies are born with unusually small heads, and other brain abnormalities. Despite the growing number of cases in America, there are no known areas in the United States where mosquitoes are actively transmitting the virus. Though the country has thus far avoided a Zika outbreak, officials warn that such an event is still possible.

In most cases, Zika is not deadly. Symptoms are often mild, if they appear at all. But the virus appears to have evolved in recent years, which may help explain why it has had such devastating effects in Brazil. Paul Farmer, the physician and humanitarian, told me he recently saw a patient in Haiti, a 12-year-old boy who was suffering from acute paralysis. “I just found out he did have Zika,” Farmer said. The boy, who remained paralyzed even after medical treatment, had developed Guillain-Barré Syndrome—a serious complication associated with the virus. “We don’t know in what fraction of cases those things occur, but it’s not trivial at all,” Farmer told me.

Gary Edwards, the executive director of the Salt Lake County Health Department, said in a statement that officials are doing what they can to figure out how the unusual transmission in Utah may have occurred. “In the meantime, the public, and especially pregnant women, should continue to take recommended steps to protect themselves from Zika virus.”

JezusDeKoning · « **Reply #1 on:** July 23, 2016, 02:54:52 PM »

Zika would probably hit Utah the hardest, actually. Every Mormon young male between the ages of 19-21 goes on a mission trip and pretty much all of them are in the developing world. If some of them brought Zika to the US, I wouldn't be surprised.

songbird · « **Reply #2 on:** July 23, 2016, 04:05:25 PM »

Some one on this Forum posted how Zika Virus may be obtained on-line for a price of about $500. Hm?

Croix de Fer · « **Reply #3 on:** July 23, 2016, 10:19:10 PM »

Quote from: JezusDeKoning

Zika would probably hit Utah the hardest, actually. Every Mormon young male between the ages of 19-21 goes on a mission trip and pretty much all of them are in the developing world. If some of them brought Zika to the US, I wouldn't be surprised.

That's a good point, but what's strange is the primary and secondary modes of transmissions, because they are not known. The information on the patient who died of Zika is ambiguous. It doesn't say whether or not he recently traveled to an area with Zika outbreaks. The secondary transmission of the person who cared for the deceased patient is reported to not have been in any contact with people infected with Zika, nor did he visit any areas that are habitats of mosquitoes that transmit the virus.

Quote from: songbird

Some one on this Forum posted how Zika Virus may be obtained on-line for a price of about $500. Hm?

That was me. You can buy freeze-dried Zika virus.

MyrnaM · « **Reply #4 on:** August 04, 2016, 04:23:53 PM »

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/embed/lBVnu6UWr0Y[/youtube]

Croix de Fer · « **Reply #5 on:** August 04, 2016, 09:03:19 PM »

Quote from: MyrnaM

[... video ...]

Thanks. I heard about that earlier. Yes, it's recently discovered that Zika is found in common Culex mosquitoes, too, not just the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Culex mosquitoes are common in southeastern and south central USA, too.

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RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian researchers said Thursday they have found Zika in Culex mosquitoes in the northeastern city of Recife in what could prove to be an important discovery. But they cautioned that more study was needed.

Until now, Zika was believed to be carried mainly by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is much less numerous, lives in clean water and is more likely to bite during the day. Aedes aegypti thrives in tropical and subtropical climates — it is found in Southern U.S. states such as Florida, but is absent in large parts of the United States. The virus is also carried by the Aedes albopictus mosquito, which lives in more rural environments.

Culex mosquitoes are much more widespread. They breed in dirty water and bite at night. Public health officials have feared that Culex mosquitoes could be involved in Zika transmission, something that would necessitate new strategies to combat the disease — which is blamed for an outbreak of the birth defect microcephaly. Brazil has confirmed around 1,700 cases of the birth defect, which causes babies to be born with unusually small heads and can cause cognitive and learning difficulties.

“It means that we have a second species of vector involved in transmission. And with this vector having totally different habits from Aedes aegypti, we will have to create new strategies to combat Culex as well,” said Constancia Ayres, a researcher from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a leading government-led research institute in Recife, who led the study.

Researchers from the foundation collected 5,000 mosquitoes from houses in Recife where suspected Zika transmission had taken place. They found 86 percent of these mosquitoes were Culex.
A visual journey through Recife View Graphic

“Culex is a much more abundant species,” Ayres told a news conference in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, where she presented the results.

The researchers analyzed 456 female Culex mosquitoes, which they divided into 80 “pools” or sample groups of between one and 10 mosquitoes each. They found Zika-infected insects in three of these pools.

Ayres said the research proved that Culex can transmit Zika and that it could have played a role in the rapid spread of the disease in Brazil.

“It can transmit Zika. What we need to know now is which species is the most important — if Culex is the primary vector or the secondary vector. We need to do more research,” she said.

Paulo Gadelha, president of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, expressed some caution during Thursday’s news conference. He said that a study at the institution in Rio by researcher Ricardo Lourenço-de-Oliveira had so far failed to find Zika in around 750 Culex mosquitoes.

“It could be that mosquitoes circulating in the Northeast [of Brazil] have more interaction,” he said, stressing that more research was needed.

Gadilha said the discovery did not change the low risk of Zika during Brazil’s Olympics, which open in Rio on Aug. 5 during the country’s cooler winter season. “The risk you have of Zika during this period is very, very remote,” he said.
Here's how mosquitos spread the Zika virus
Play Video1:49
Stephen Higgs, director of Kansas State University's Biosecurity Research Institute, explains the anatomy of a mosquito. (Kansas State University)

Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas said that if researchers have found Zika in Culex mosquitoes only a handful of times, “it’s hard to know what that means; it may not be a finding of great biological significance.” But if they are detecting the virus in Culex mosquitoes in large numbers and on a consistent basis, “That would be a game changer.”

Hotez was skeptical that Culex mosquitoes are going to start spreading Zika in a significant way. “So far, every place we’ve seen Zika has been a place where you have Aedes aegypti mosquitoes,” he said. “There no reason why one would have to speculate that another mosquito vector is involved.”