Zika Interview: "Virus May Create Outbreaks In Europe, The U.S. And Asia In The Future"

Associated with grave birth defects, the Zika virus tearing across Latin America could eventually affect more than half of the world's population. That's according to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine which agreed to an interview via email. Although the current epidemic in the Americas is being spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, according to Jimmy Whitworth, the School's Professor of International Public Health: "A number of mosquitos have been documented to carry the Zika virus. For example, the Aedes albopictus mosquito which resides in large parts of the U.S., southern Europe, and Asia is of particular concern because it's a competent vector for the virus." It could therefore create large "outbreaks in the future." His thoughts are echoed by the Pan American Health Organization, which expects the disease to spread "everywhere the mosquito is." And, considering that Zika may have only arrived in Brazil 18 months ago via a single infected traveler who was bitten by a local mosquito, its capacity to spread at lighrening speed is quite alarming. It has since exploded across 23 countries in the Americas. "In the right conditions, with sufficient mosquitoes and closely packed humans, the virus can spread rapidly. Aedes aegypti, the main vector of Zika, is a domestic mosquito that can breed in any small deposit of water," says Martin Hibberd, Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the School. Climate change may have stoked the flames of this...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news