No Cases of Zika Diagnosed in Mozambique

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No Cases of Zika Diagnosed in Mozambique

11:02 CAT | 05 Feb 2016

A health agent uses a new test kit that rapidly diagnoses three different mosquito-borne viruses in Sao Paulo, Brazil, January 18, 2016. REUTERS/Rodrigo Paiva

In file Club of Mozambique.

The Ministry of Health on Tuesday guaranteed that so far no cases of the Zika virus have been diagnosed in Mozambique.

Speaking at a Maputo press conference, the deputy national director of public health, Benigna Matsinhe, said “We have no record of anybody with Zika, or of any circulation of the virus”. But she added that she was not sure whether the environmental conditions in Mozambique would favour the development and spread of the virus.

The virus owes its name to the Zika forest in Uganda where it was first isolated from a rhesus monkey in 1947. It was found among human beings for the first time in Nigeria in 1968.

The virus is transmitted by several species of mosquitos of the Aedes genus, notably Aedes Aegypti. But once people have the virus in their blood, it can be transmitted sexually. The most alarming aspect of the virus is that it can be transmitted from mother to unborn child. Zika has been linked to microcephaly and brain damage in fetuses.

Matsinhe said that Mozambique is preparing for any possible appearance of the virus. Between 15 and 19 February, the health authorities will try to map the occurrence of the main vector of the disease, the aedes aegypi mosquito. At the same time, a group of Mozambican laboratory technicians will be trained in laboratory conformation of the disease by specialists from the United States.

Matsinhe promised that the health authorities are mounting surveillance of any fevers of unknown origin. Particular care is being taken with air passengers whose journey began in Brazil, the country currently worst hit by the disease.

Anyone displaying symptoms of Zika (such as rashes, headaches, fevers, conjunctivitis and joint pains) is being asked to visit the nearest health unit for a blood test, which will determine whether the individual is carrying the virus.

The scientific director of the National Health Institute (INS), Eduardo Samo Gudo, thought it most unlikely that Zika will appear in Mozambique. The only African country with active transmission of the disease is Cape Verde, he said.

“The few cases are sporadic, never in the form of an outbreak, and there is no record of mass transmission”, Samo Gudo told the journalists. “For Mozambique, the risk is low”.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that between three and four million people could come to be infected with Zika, a million and a half of them in Brazil.

On Tuesday, WHO warned that the spread of Zika was now a global public health emergency (putting it on a par with much more lethal diseases, such as ebola). There is currently no vaccine and no drugs against Zika.

Source: AIM