Colombia Remains In Denial Of Zika Cause Of Microcephaly In Brazil

[niman]

Colombia continues to deny the relationship between Zika and microcephaly in Brazil.

http://saude.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,historicamente-o-brasil-nao-registrava-microcefalia--diz-vice-ministro-de-saude-da-colombia,1840461

 

Edited March 7, 2016 by niman

[niman]

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Colombia lives under fear of microcephaly

Nurse Jasmine Otero already got used to the new routine. Two months ago, every time a woman reaches the office of the health unit bringing a pregnancy test with positive result, the first question is: had itches, stains the body, fever? "Weight, nutrition, family diseases are no longer a priority. Now the most important is to know if they had symptoms of zika" he says.

 

Professional works in Comuneros, one of the areas of greatest risk for the disease in Cúcuta, capital of the department Norte de Santander, bordering Venezuela, and champion city in number of cases of zika in Colombia - second in the number of cases of disease, behind only Brazil. "At least half of the population had the infection," ensures the nurse.

 

Name and address are recorded. "If they miss appointments, an agent goes to the house to see what happened," he says. When symptoms are recent, tests to identify the presence of the virus are made. If complaints are older, blood is collected and sent to a bank, where materials of all pregnant women with complaints are stored. The hope is that this material is useful as soon as a new exam, able to identify an infection occurred more time is available.

 

Opportunity. "We are watching these women in real time," says the director of the Departmental Institute of Cúcuta Health, Juan Alberto Bitar. "We have an opportunity here that Brazil had not."

 

The effort is to try to collect as much information to see if the transmission from mother to baby zika can cause microcephaly - and believe Brazilian authorities. For now, they are being accompanied by about 7,000 Colombian women who showed symptoms of the virus. Only in Cúcuta are 1,117 cases - of which 119 were laboratory confirmed.

 

"Brazil data indicate that there may be an association between zika and malformation. But this is not enough to establish causality. It is necessary to wait for other studies," said the State the Health deputy minister of Colombia, Fernando Ruiz Gómez . "We will serve as a point of comparison with Brazil. From there, there are some deductions, hypotheses. With this monitoring in Colombia, we have chances to find answers."

 

Three studies are being done in the country, in collaboration with the American Center for Disease Control.One to identify the incidence of disease in the general population, one for the relationship between microcephaly and Zika and a third of cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune disease, traditionally a result of infection by viruses and bacteria. Preliminary results of the work are expected in the first half of 2017.

 

Although the Colombian government has recommended that women postpone pregnancy plans, wear protective screens and repellents to prevent mosquito bites, officials are careful to talk about the direct relationship with microcephaly.

Gómez, for example, states that, to date, of the 11 cases of malformation suspected of being related to zika ten have been discarded and is still under investigation. An abortion was done, but the deputy minister says other strains were found not microcephaly.

 

The day before yesterday, however, the journal Nature reported three cases of malformations which, according to Colombian scientists are reportedly linked to zika virus. The detail was sent to a British scientific journal.

 

What then explains the increase records? "In Brazil, other factors may be related," said the deputy minister, who speaks of the possibility of underreporting - would be an old problem now reported. Another factor that could explain the increase in cases in Brazil, evaluates, would be environmental causes, including interaction with other diseases such as chikungunya and dengue.

 

Divergence. There are, however, who think different. Ricardo Montoya Gonzales, obstetrician University Hospital Erasmo Meoz, Cúcuta, estimates that the increase in cases of malformation among infants is a matter of time. "If the pattern of Brazil is repeated, the increase will begin to be registered after April. This is the time for infected babies in the first trimester of pregnancy begin to rise." The information is the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.

http://hypenews.in/colmbia-vive-sob-temor-da-microcefalia/

 

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