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Markets | Thu Feb 11, 2016 11:27am EST Related: HEALTHCARE, INDUSTRIALS
UPDATE 1-Brazil probes 3 deaths with Zika links, aims for vaccine in a year
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By Maria Carolina Marcello
Feb 11 Recent laboratory analyses identified Zika virus infections in three people who died in Brazil last year, the health ministry said on Thursday, although authorities could not confirm that Zika alone was responsible for their deaths.
Brazilian Health Minister Marcelo Castro confirmed the findings at a press conference, while announcing that a new partnership with scientists at the University of Texas could lead to laboratory development of a vaccine within a year. He cautioned that full-fledged availability of a vaccine against the mosquito-borne virus would take longer.
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The ministry said Brazilian researchers found the virus in the body of a 20-year-old woman in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte, who died last April from respiratory problems. Two other patients last year also died from complications while they were infected with the virus.
Castro said the deaths possibly illustrated "comorbidity" caused by the virus and complications it may have caused in the patients. The woman's respiratory problems were likely "associated with the infection," he said.
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Though laboratory tests have showed traces of Zika in patients affected by the believed complications, no proof yet exists to show it causes the birth deformations or any reported deaths.
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(Reporting by Silvio Cascione and Maria Carolina Marcello; Writing by Paulo Prada; Editing by Frances Kerry)
http://www.reuters.com/article/health-zika-brazil-idUSL2N15Q0YY
UPDATE 1-Brazil probes 3 deaths with Zika links, aims for vaccine in a year
...
By Maria Carolina Marcello
Feb 11 Recent laboratory analyses identified Zika virus infections in three people who died in Brazil last year, the health ministry said on Thursday, although authorities could not confirm that Zika alone was responsible for their deaths.
Brazilian Health Minister Marcelo Castro confirmed the findings at a press conference, while announcing that a new partnership with scientists at the University of Texas could lead to laboratory development of a vaccine within a year. He cautioned that full-fledged availability of a vaccine against the mosquito-borne virus would take longer.
...
The ministry said Brazilian researchers found the virus in the body of a 20-year-old woman in the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte, who died last April from respiratory problems. Two other patients last year also died from complications while they were infected with the virus.
Castro said the deaths possibly illustrated "comorbidity" caused by the virus and complications it may have caused in the patients. The woman's respiratory problems were likely "associated with the infection," he said.
...
Though laboratory tests have showed traces of Zika in patients affected by the believed complications, no proof yet exists to show it causes the birth deformations or any reported deaths.
...
(Reporting by Silvio Cascione and Maria Carolina Marcello; Writing by Paulo Prada; Editing by Frances Kerry)
http://www.reuters.com/article/health-zika-brazil-idUSL2N15Q0YY