The World Health Organization has set up a Zika \u201cemergency team\u201d after the \u201cexplosive\u201d spread of the virus.<\/strong><\/p>\nZika has been linked to thousands of babies being born with small brains in Brazil.<\/p>\n
WHO director general Dr Margaret Chan said Zika had gone \u201cfrom a mild threat to one of alarming proportions\u201d and was having a \u201cheart-breaking\u201d impact.<\/p>\n
The team will meet on Monday to decide whether Zika should be treated as a global emergency.<\/p>\n
The last time an international emergency was declared was for the Ebola outbreak in West Africa which has killed more than 11,000 people.<\/p>\n
Zika was first detected in Uganda in 1947, but has never caused an outbreak on this scale.<\/p>\n
Brazil reported the first cases of Zika in South America in May 2015.<\/p>\n
Most cases result in no symptoms and it is hard to test for, but WHO officials said an estimated 1.5 million people had been infected in the country.<\/p>\n
The virus, which is spread by mosquitoes, has since spread to more than 20 countries in the region.<\/p>\n
At the same time there has been a steep rise in levels of microcephaly \u2013 babies born with abnormally small heads \u2013 and the rare nervous system disorder Guillain-Barre syndrome.<\/p>\n
The link between the virus and these disorders has not been confirmed, but Dr Chan said it was \u201cstrongly suspected\u201d and \u201cdeeply alarming\u201d.<\/p>\n
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And she warned the situation could yet deteriorate as \u201cthis year\u2019s El Nino weather patterns are expected to increase mosquito populations greatly in many areas\u201d.<\/p>\n
The BBC\u2019s David Shukman, reporting from Recife in north-east Brazil, said doctors were \u201coverwhelmed\u201d by cases of microcephaly.<\/p>\n
One hospital in the city had gone from dealing with an average of five cases a year to 300 in the past six months.<\/p>\n
Emergency team<\/h3>\n
Earlier, doctors writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association said Zika had \u201cexplosive pandemic potential\u201d and said the WHO\u2019s failure to act swiftly on Ebola probably cost thousands of lives.<\/p>\n
In a statement to the executive board meeting of the WHO, Dr Chan said: \u201cThe level of concern is high, as is the level of uncertainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuestions abound \u2013 we need to get some answers quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor all these reasons, I have decided to convene an Emergency Committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am asking the Committee for advice on the appropriate level of international concern and for recommended measures that should be undertaken in affected countries and elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Carissa Etienne, the regional-director for the WHO Pan American Health Organization, said the link between the abnormalities and Zika had not been confirmed.<\/p>\n
But she added: \u201cWe cannot tolerate the prospect of more babies being born with neurological and other malformations and more people facing the threat of paralysis.\u201d<\/p>\n
-bbc<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
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[ad_1] The World Health Organization has set up a Zika \u201cemergency team\u201d after the \u201cexplosive\u201d spread of the virus. Zika has been linked to thousands of babies being born with small brains in Brazil. WHO director general Dr Margaret Chan said Zika had gone \u201cfrom a mild threat to one of alarming proportions\u201d and was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n
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