NEWS POST: First Zika Medical Test Developed In Germany

© Juan Carlos Ulate / Reuters

German researchers have developed a diagnostic test that can accurately detect the Zika virus in humans. Until now, the only way to determine if someone had the illness was to wait to see if the disease’s distinctive symptoms appeared.

Genekam, a German biotechnology company, has created technology that can not only reveal the presence of Zika pathogens in a blood sample, but also shed light on the quantity in the patient’s blood, Deutsche Welle (DW) reports.

The new test can therefore definitely determine if a person is a carrier of the Zika virus, as only one in five people infected actually becomes ill, the media reports. Additionally, the test renders diagnostic results in real time, which is relatively quick for a virus of this kind.

“Our test examines DNA and works with chemicals that react to the Zika virus only,” Sudhir Bhartia, a virologist and one of the co-developers of the innovation, told DW. The researcher also added that the test provides sufficient accuracy, as “similar pathogens like Dengue fever won’t show up in the results.”

However, the technology has its limitations, as it can only be employed in specialized medical facilities and laboratories having the appropriate equipment and personnel with sufficient know-how.

“The test must only be used by qualified personnel so that mistakes can be avoided,” Bhartia stressed.

At the same time, it is rather cheap, costing about €5.

According to Deutsche Welle, the first kits containing the new tests have already been sent to Brazil, which is suffering from a Zika virus epidemic in which up to 1.5 million people may have been infected. Under normal circumstances, the test would go through a lengthy authorization phase. However, due to the emergency situation in South America, authorities have made an exception in this case.

The Zika virus has been rapidly spreading across the globe since the first cases were reported in Brazil in May of 2015. Between three and four million people have been infected with the virus worldwide, according to WHO data.

The infection is believed to be mainly transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is present in all continents, including the southern United States and the Mediterranean region. According to medics, the virus is generally not dangerous for healthy adult people. Its symptoms, if they emerge at all, are much like those of a usual flu.

“If you show no symptoms three weeks after you return, they’re not going to manifest anymore,” Christian Drosten from the German Society for Virology told DW, referring to tourists returning from territories affected by the ongoing epidemic.
“And two weeks after that, the virus will no longer be present in your body,” he added.
At the same time, the virus could be particularly dangerous for women in their first trimester, as it is suspected to cause microcephaly, a birth defect that results in an underdeveloped head and brain.

However, German medical specialists have called the connection between Zika virus and birth defects into question.

“There are still too many aspects we don’t understand about the Zika virus to say it directly causes microcephaly,” Drosten said.

According to Deutsche Welle, the Brazilian health ministry has received reports of 4,180 birth defects suspected to be microcephaly, of which it has managed to investigate about 700. Only 270 of those birth defects were actually confirmed to be microcephaly-related, and Zika virus infection was present in less than 10 of those cases.

“I think it’s possible that there’s only a very loose correlation between the Zika virus and microcephaly,” Drosten said in commenting on this data.

“The health risk may not be big, but these women have a tough time psychologically and are burdened with ethical concerns,” he added.

As of now, five people have been diagnosed with Zika virus in Germany. All of them had returned from areas hit by the epidemic, Bavarian Broadcasting Company Bayerischer Rundfunk reported. Meanwhile, German Health Minister Hermann Grohe plans to oblige Germans and report all cases of infections involving insect-borne pathogenic diseases. The upper house of the German parliament is expected to vote on the minister’s proposal in mid-March.

US President Barack Obama and his Brazilian counterpart, Dilma Rousseff, agreed during a telephone conversation on Friday to create a high profile expert group in order to “step up fighting” against the Zika virus and develop a vaccine for the disease.
“We will win this fight,” Rousseff told the governors of the Brazilian regions beset by the virus.

On February 13, Brazil plans to deploy more than 200,000 troops to spread awareness of the Zika virus. The uniformed soldiers will walk around Brazilian neighborhoods handing out leaflets and mosquito repellent door-to-door, Health Minister Marcelo Castro said in an interview on Wednesday.

Zika virus is believed to be mainly transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito

ZIKA VIRUS: What You Need To Know About The Latest Global Health Scare

You may not have heard of it until very recently, but new cases of the Zika virus continue to pop up around the world. Spreading mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean, the virus has now been confirmed in three travelers from the UK.

A statement from Public Health England said those infected had recently traveled through South America, but it is not clear if the people involved have since returned to the UK.

The Britons travelled to Colombia, Suriname and Guyana, where they are suspected of contracting the mosquito-borne disease. Public Health England has not confirmed if any of the three are pregnant.

Why is Zika dangerous?

There is no vaccine for the virus, which can cause fever, rashes, joint pains, and conjunctivitis within days of being contracted. For most of those infected, the virus causes a short illness lasting between two and seven days. However, in some rare cases, it can result in serious illness and death.

Infants are most at risk from Zika, as mothers can pass the infection on to their fetus, leading to microcephaly – a rare birth defect where babies are born with abnormally small heads and developmental delays.

Treatment for the Zika virus focuses on pain relief and fever reduction, with some patients also given antihistamines for itchy skin rashes.

Preventative measures focus on general mosquito bite prevention, such as using insecticides, and special nets and screens.

Where it came from

The Zika virus is mainly found in South America, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and Southeast Asia.

The virus was first discovered in Africa in 1947, circulating in humans, animals and mosquitoes with few documented outbreaks. In wasn’t until 2007 that an Asian strain of the virus caused the first outbreak outside of Africa, in Micronesia. The same strain caused an outbreak in French Polynesia in 2013, which has since spread to the Pacific Islands and South America.

Within nine months of the first case being confirmed in the northeast of Brazil in May 2015, most Brazilian states had reported locally-acquired cases.

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Brazil has seen a surge in outbreaks of the fever since 2015. The country had seen an average of 150 babies a year born with microcephaly, but from October 2015 to January 2016 that number rocketed to over 3,500, according to the Brazilian Ministry of Health.

In the US, “over a dozen” cases of Zika have been confirmed so far. Currently, one infant diagnosed with the condition in Hawaii is carrying the virus – the first case of Zika-connected microcephaly in the US.

Israel reported its first case of the virus this week, in a two-year-old girl returning from a visit to Colombia.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have expanded their list of countries currently under a Zika-related travel warning to 22: Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Barbados, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin, Guyana, Cape Verde, and Samoa.

Public Health England has said it expects to see further cases of the virus spread internationally, especially “where the mosquito vector is present.”

How Zika spreads

The virus is primarily spread to people through the bite of an infected mosquito. It cannot be spread through human contact, as Brazil’s health ministry noted on Twitter.

However, a 2013 study found that in some circumstances, the virus could potentially spread through sexual intercourse.

The link between Zika and microcephaly has yet to be confirmed, but recent cases of infant deaths in Brazil – where doctors have been left with no explanation other than Zika – have been enough evidence for the CDC to target pregnant women with their warnings about the virus.

The Centers say that, although rare, a mother who becomes infected with the virus near her delivery date can pass the virus on to the newborn around the time of birth. However, they add “there are no reports of infants getting Zika virus through breastfeeding.”

Affected countries have been taking a range of precautions to prevent the spread of the virus, such as fumigation in Venezuela and Honduras:

Meanwhile, authorities in Brazil are even considering introducing genetically engineered mosquitoes to help them combat Zika’s spread. 

Originally published (STORY 1 & STORY 2) in RT.com