By Recto Mercene
THE Manila International Airport Authority (Miaa) promised to provide everything the Bureau of Quarantine officials would need to prevent the entry of the Zika virus in the country.
This developed as the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the spread of the Zika virus now constitutes an international public-health emergency.
“We are in constant communication with the Department of Health [DOH]… asking [the Bureau of] Quarantine what the Miaa can give to prevent the entry of Zika virus through the international airports,” Miaa Senior Assistant General Manager Vicente Guerzon said.
He said quarantine officials have been constantly monitoring arrivals at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s (Naia) three passenger terminals that cater to international arrivals.
The Zika virus, however, is not new to the Philippines.
“The last recorded Zika virus victim in the Philippines was in 2012, and he survived the disease,” DOH Spokesman Lyndon Lee-Suy said.
Lee-Suy added that the department is ready to handle cases of Zika virus, which is “relatively milder compared to dengue.”
Meanwhile, the premier airport had requested health officials and airport personnel to be extra vigilant in detecting passenger afflicted with the virus.
The staff members of some airlines had started spraying insecticide inside the airplane’s cabin, including overhead compartments and under the seats in the hope of killing any airborne mosquitoes that have hitched a ride from other countries.
The DOH will investigate reported news that a Filipino in Honduras have been infected with the Zika virus.
The virus, which spreads to human through mosquito bites, is not easily transmittable and the symptoms of the virus can be managed, the DOH said. The DOH called on the public to keep their surroundings clean and destroy all possible breeding grounds of mosquitoes in their communities to prevent this kind of virus.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) said about one in five people infected with Zika virus become ill. The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, conjunctivitis (red eyes), muscle pain and headache.
The incubation period (the time from exposure to symptoms) for Zika virus disease is not known, but is likely to be a few days to a week. The illness is usually mild, with symptoms lasting for several days to a week.
Zika virus usually remains in the blood of an infected person for a few days, but it can be found longer in some people.
Severe onset of the disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon and deaths are rare, the CDC added. Those diagnosed with the symptoms of Zika are found to have similar experiences to those infected with dengue and chikungunya, diseases spread through the same mosquitoes that transmit Zika.
Those who have traveled to other countries with known Zika epidemic are advised to see a healthcare provider and tell them when and where they traveled.
No vaccine or medications are available to prevent or treat Zika infections, the CDC said.
News reports added that vaccines being developed against Zika virus wil be available in about four to five years. Those having symptoms are advised to drink fluids to prevent dehydration and take acetaminophen to relieve fever and pain. They are advised not to take aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), like ibuprofen and naproxen.
“Aspirin and NSAIDs should be avoided until dengue can be ruled out to reduce the risk of hemorrhage [bleeding]. If you are taking medicine for another medical condition, talk to your health-care provider before taking additional medication,” the CDC said.
The WHO declared on Monday that explosive growth of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has been spreading rapidly in the Americas and may be linked to birth defects, constitutes an international public-health emergency, signaling a new phase in the global effort to battle the virus. The United Nations health agency made the decision after convening an panel of experts in Geneva amid reports from Brazil linking the virus to microcephaly, a birth defect of the brain in which babies are born with abnormally small heads. The recent “cluster” of microcephaly cases and other neurological disorders reported in Brazil followed a similar cluster in French Polynesia in 2014, WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in a statement.
“A coordinated international response is needed to improve surveillance, the detection of infections, congenital malformations and neurological complications, to intensify the control of mosquito populations, and to expedite the development of diagnostic tests and vaccines to protect people at risk, especially during pregnancy,” Chan said.
Last week the WHO declared a threat of “alarming proportions,” warning that the Zika virus was “spreading explosively” across the Americas and could infect as many as 4 million people.
Monday’s declaration will serve as a kind of global notice of the threat, but the WHO did not move to restrict travel or trade in regions where the virus is found. It will likely trigger additional resources being put toward researching the virus and preventing its spread; to date, officials say, the only cases of Zika diagnosed in the United States involve people who are believed to have contracted it while traveling abroad.
The WHO, however, says transmission will probably spread to all the countries and territories in the Americas hosting the mosquito that transmits the virus known as the Aedes mosquito including the US mainland.
Some reports have also linked the Zika virus to cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, or GBS, which can cause temporary paralysis. Among other recommendations, the committee of experts convened by the world health body suggested that surveillance for microcephaly and GBS “should be standardized and enhanced, particularly in areas of known Zika virus transmission and areas at risk of such transmission.”
The panel also urged additional research into clusters of microcephaly and other disorders linked to Zika. “As these clusters have occurred in areas newly infected with Zika virus, and in keeping with good public-health practice and the absence of another explanation for these clusters, the committee highlights the importance of aggressive measures to reduce infection with Zika virus, particularly among pregnant women and women of childbearing age,” the panel said.
The illness from the Zika virus is not considered serious and symptoms including rashes, joint pain and reddened eyes are usually mild and last for several days or a week, experts say. But the reports of links to birth defects from Brazil have triggered alarm.
There is no vaccine for the virus. The Zika illness is common in parts of equatorial Africa and Southeast Asia. Outbreaks have also been reported in the Pacific islands. But the disease did not begin to spread widely in the Americas until May, when an outbreak was reported in Brazil.
It has since spread to 23 countries and territories in the region. In Brazil, where Zika has taken on the character of a national emergency, health authorities said they plan to deploy 220,000 members of the military on a single day in February to distribute pamphlets across the country to educate people about the risks posed by mosquitoes.
The government of El Salvador, meantime, has advised people to put off having children for two years because of the threat. Residents in Brazil and other affected have also been urged to clean up stagnant pools of water and containers in which the mosquitos tend to breed.
Containers that can hold even small amounts of water buckets, flowerpots, tires should be emptied, cleaned or covered to prevent mosquitoes from breeding in them, health authorities say. Experts say knowledge of the link between the Zika virus and birth defects is evolving and not yet confirmed. But the reported links from Brazil were sufficient to declare an emergency, officials said.
Authorities are urging pregnant women to take several precautions, including delaying travel to areas where the virus is present. Pregnant women living in areas where the virus exists have also been advised to consider a number of protective measures, such as wearing long sleeves and pants and wearing mosquito repellent.
Monday’s declaration that the Zika virus was a Public Health Emergency of International Concern was the first such determination by the WHO since 2014 outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. In the case of Ebola, the UN agency was harshly criticized for what detractors called its slow response.
Ebola had already killed more than 1,000 people by the time the agency sounded the alarm in August 2014. Ebola has now sickened more than 26,000 people and killed at least 11,316.
Brazil President Dilma Rousseff has issued a decree allowing public officials to enter abandoned or empty homes by force if necessary, in the absence of persons authorized to permit entry.
The measure is part of the country’s efforts to eradicate the breeding grounds of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which has been identified as a vector of the Zika virus, as well as of dengue fever, chikungunya, and yellow fever.
The new powers, which came into force on Monday, are part of a “Provisional Measure” that allows public officials to request police assistance in carrying out forced entry if necessary, and also authorizes the carrying out of educational campaigns and the creation of public guidelines.
Brazil’s efforts to target the mosquito’s breeding grounds are mainly focused in the northeastern Brazilian states of Bahia, Pernambuco and Paraiba, whose governors attended a teleconference meeting with the president on Friday, also accompanied by the governors of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo states.
At a news conference following the meeting, Rousseff admitted that Brazil was “losing the fight against Aedes,” but vowed that it would not lose the war. Speaking alongside Health Minister Marcelo Castro, Rousseff said there could be “no contingencies or limits” to the resources the government would make available in the fight against Zika, which she identified as a threat to public health.
(With Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco, MCT)
Image credits: AP