Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
Brazilian official calls for WHO to declare emergency over Zika outbreak
Date 31.01.2016
Author Bruce Douglas
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Ahead of the World Health Organization (WHO) meeting in Geneva on 1 February, Dr. Rodrigo Stabeli, vice president of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Brazil?s foremost public health research organisation, told DW the rapid spread of the disease across the Americas justified his call.
"As Margaret Chan (WHO president) said, we are seeing an 'explosive' rise in cases," he said. "Looking at the transmission rates of this virus, I think Margaret should call a public health emergency."
Such a move would help to free up funding from member states and private donors to help in the fight against the disease...
...
"The problem is that we know so little about the disease," said Dr. Denise Valle, an epidemiologist at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, a major public health research center. "We need to understand this virus much better; at the moment it is still a mystery."
...
'Compelling correlation' with microcephaly
So far most of the evidence for the link is based on a strong correlation between the virus outbreak and the incidence of microcephaly. But Brazilian researchers admit that correlation is not the same as causation.
"The evidence is very compelling," Dr. Stabeli said. "But we cannot say that it is a scientific certainty."
...
Based on the current rate of increase in microcephaly over the past year, Fiocruz expects Brazil will have 16,000 cases by the end of 2016. Dr. Stabeli describes the situation as the country's worst health crisis since the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918.
...
http://www.dw.com/en/brazilian-offi...clare-emergency-over-zika-outbreak/a-19014734
Date 31.01.2016
Author Bruce Douglas
...
Ahead of the World Health Organization (WHO) meeting in Geneva on 1 February, Dr. Rodrigo Stabeli, vice president of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Brazil?s foremost public health research organisation, told DW the rapid spread of the disease across the Americas justified his call.
"As Margaret Chan (WHO president) said, we are seeing an 'explosive' rise in cases," he said. "Looking at the transmission rates of this virus, I think Margaret should call a public health emergency."
Such a move would help to free up funding from member states and private donors to help in the fight against the disease...
...
"The problem is that we know so little about the disease," said Dr. Denise Valle, an epidemiologist at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, a major public health research center. "We need to understand this virus much better; at the moment it is still a mystery."
...
'Compelling correlation' with microcephaly
So far most of the evidence for the link is based on a strong correlation between the virus outbreak and the incidence of microcephaly. But Brazilian researchers admit that correlation is not the same as causation.
"The evidence is very compelling," Dr. Stabeli said. "But we cannot say that it is a scientific certainty."
...
Based on the current rate of increase in microcephaly over the past year, Fiocruz expects Brazil will have 16,000 cases by the end of 2016. Dr. Stabeli describes the situation as the country's worst health crisis since the Spanish Flu epidemic in 1918.
...
http://www.dw.com/en/brazilian-offi...clare-emergency-over-zika-outbreak/a-19014734