Brazil expects to develop a vaccine for the Zika virus in about a year, health officials say.
However, two more years would be needed for any large-scale rollout, health minister Marcelo Castro said.
Brazil is at the center of an outbreak of the Zika virus that has been linked to a surge of brain malformations in newborn babies.
Separately, officials have said the death of a third adult in Brazil had possible links to Zika.
Marcelo Castro announced that Brazil would invest $1.9 million in research for the Zika vaccine over the next five years, in partnership with scientists at the University of Texas.
Researchers have agreed that the testing of the vaccine would happen simultaneously in mice and monkeys, and not separately, to speed up the process, he said.
Photo AFP/Getty Images
A vaccine could be ready for distribution within three years, Marcelo Castro added.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global public health emergency over the possible connection between Zika and microcephaly, a condition marked by abnormally small heads in newborn babies that can result in developmental problems.
The link with Zika has not been confirmed, but the WHO and other public health bodies have said it is strongly suspected.
Brazil has seen more than 4,000 suspected cases of microcephaly since October – a huge surge considering it had fewer than 150 cases in the whole of 2014.
Officials there believe as many as 1.5 million people could be infected by Zika.
Brazil has also announced a partnership with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for studies about the possible relation between the virus and the condition.
The microcephaly cases have been centered in north-east Brazil, but the Zika outbreak has affected people in more than 20 countries in the Americas.
Some governments have advised women to delay getting pregnant. Already-pregnant women have been advised not to travel to the countries affected.
Brazilian researchers found the Zika virus in the body of a 20-year-old woman who died last April from respiratory problems in the north-eastern state of Rio Grande do Norte, the health minister said.
Two other patients last year also died from complications while they were infected with the virus, before the outbreak had been discovered.
“We are still studying this in greater detail,” Marcelo Castro said at a press conference.
WHO director general, Margaret Chan, is expected to visit Brazil on February 23, Brazil’s health minister said.
A pregnant woman has been diagnosed with the Zika virus in Spain, the health ministry confirmed.
This is the first such case reported in Europe.
Spain’s health ministry said the woman had recently returned from Colombia, where it is believed she was infected.
Zika, which is spreading through the Americas, has been linked to babies being born with underdeveloped brains.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the microcephaly condition, linked to the Zika virus, a global public health emergency.
On February 4, the WHO also advised countries not to accept blood donations from people who had traveled to Zika-affected regions, the AFP news agency reported.
In a statement, the Spanish health ministry said the pregnant woman was diagnosed as having Zika in the north-eastern Catalonia region.
The ministry did not release the woman’s name, saying she was one of seven confirmed cases in Spain.
It said two more patients were in Catalonia, two in Castile and Leon, one in Murcia and one in the capital Madrid.
“All are in good health,” the ministry added.
The ministry also stressed that “the diagnosed cases of Zika virus in Spain… don’t risk spreading the virus in our country as they are imported cases”.
The Zika virus is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also carries dengue fever and yellow fever.
It was first discovered in Africa in the 1940s but is now spreading in Latin America
Scientists say there is growing evidence of a link to microcephaly that leads to babies being born with small heads.
The Zika virus can lead to fever and a rash but most people show no symptoms, and there is no known cure.
The only way to fight Zika is to clear stagnant water where mosquitoes breed, and protect against mosquito bites.
Zika was first detected in Uganda in 1947, but has never caused an outbreak on this scale.
Brazil reported the first cases of Zika in South America in May 2015.
Most cases result in no symptoms and it is hard to test for, but WHO officials said between 500,000 and 1.5 million people had been infected in Brazil.
The Zika virus has since spread to more than 20 countries in the region.
Between three and four million people could be infected with Zika virus in the Americas in 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) predicts.
Most will not develop symptoms, but the Zika virus, spread by mosquitoes, has been linked to brain defects in babies.
Meanwhile the US says it hopes to start vaccine trials in people by the end of the year.
According to WHO director general Dr. Margaret Chan, Zika had gone “from a mild threat to one of alarming proportions”.
Dr. Margaret Chan has set up a Zika “emergency team” after the “explosive” spread of the virus.
The emergency team will meet on February 1 to decide whether Zika should be treated as a global emergency.
The last time an international emergency was declared was for the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which has killed more than 11,000 people.
Zika was first detected in Uganda in 1947, but has never caused an outbreak on this scale.
Brazil reported the first cases of Zika in South America in May 2015.
Most cases result in no symptoms and it is hard to test for, but WHO officials said between 500,000 and 1.5 million people had been infected in Brazil.
The virus has since spread to more than 20 countries in the region.
At the same time there has been a steep rise in levels of microcephaly – babies born with abnormally small heads – and the rare nervous system disorder Guillain-Barre syndrome.
The link between the virus and these disorders has not been confirmed, but Dr. Margaret Chan said it was “strongly suspected” and was “deeply alarming”.
She also warned the situation could yet deteriorate as “this year’s El Nino weather patterns are expected to increase mosquito populations greatly in many areas”.
One hospital in Recife, north-east Brazil, had gone from dealing with an average of five cases of microcephaly a year to 300 in the past six months.
Earlier, doctors writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association said Zika had “explosive pandemic potential” and said the WHO’s failure to act swiftly on Ebola probably cost thousands of lives.
In a statement to the executive board meeting of the WHO, Dr. Margaret Chan said: “The level of concern is high, as is the level of uncertainty.
“Questions abound – we need to get some answers quickly.
“For all these reasons, I have decided to convene an Emergency Committee.
“I 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.”
Officials from the US National Institute of Health (NIH) said they had two potential Zika vaccines in development.
One that is based on an experimental West Nile vaccine could be repurposed for Zika and enter clinical trials by the end of 2016, Dr. Anthony Fauci from NIH said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said talks were already taking place with pharmaceutical companies, but a vaccine would not be widely available for several years.
Meanwhile Dr. Anne Schuchat, from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed there had been 31 cases of Zika in the US – all linked to travel to the affected areas.
At a news conference, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the US response to the virus so far had been “consistent with the kind of threat that could be out there”.
“At this point, here in the United States, the risk of a disease spread by mosquitoes is quite low, the January temperatures in North America are quite inhospitable to the mosquito populations.”
“But, obviously that’s going to change,” he added.
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.
American specialists have urged the World Health Organization (WHO) to take urgent action over the Zika virus, which they say has “explosive pandemic potential”.
Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the scientists called on the WHO to heed lessons from the Ebola outbreak and convene an emergency committee of disease experts.
They said a vaccine might be ready for testing in two years but it could be a decade before it is publicly available.
Zika, linked to birth defects as microcephaly, has caused panic in Brazil.
Thousands of people have been infected there and it has spread to some 20 countries.
Brazilian President Dilma Roussef has urged Latin America to unite in combating the virus.
Dilma Rousseff told a summit in Ecuador that sharing knowledge about the disease was the only way that it would be beaten. A meeting of regional health ministers has been called for next week.
In the JAMA article, Daniel R. Lucey and Lawrence O. Gostin say the WHO’s failure to act early in the recent Ebola crisis probably cost thousands of lives.
They warn that a similar catastrophe could unfold if swift action is not taken over the Zika virus.
“An Emergency Committee should be convened urgently to advise the Director-General about the conditions necessary to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern,” Daniel R. Lucey and Lawrence O. Gostin wrote.
They added: “The very process of convening the committee would catalyze international attention, funding, and research.”
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on January 27 the US government intended to make a more concerted effort to communicate with Americans about the risks associated with the virus.
There is no cure for the Zika virus and the hunt is on for a vaccine, led by scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
The researchers have visited Brazil to carry out research and collect samples and are now analyzing them in a suite of high-security laboratories in Galveston, Texas.
Brazil will deploy 220,000 troops in its fight against mosquitoes spreading the Zika virus.
The troops will go from home to home handing out leaflets on how to avoid the spread of Zika, which has been linked to thousands of babies being born with underdeveloped brains.
The announcement came after Brazil’s Health Minister Marcelo Castro said the country was “losing badly” in its fight against the virus.
No treatment or vaccine is available.
Marcelo Castro said the troops would be sent out on February 13 to hand out leaflets and give advice on how to eradicate mosquito breeding grounds.
The health minister told O Globo newspaper that the spread of the Zika virus was one of the greatest public health crises in Brazilian history.
The fight against Zika could only be won if people did their bit to eradicate the Aedes Aegypti mosquito which transmits it, Marcelo Castro said.
He added that the mosquito, which also transmits dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever, was Brazil’s “public enemy number one”.
“Last year we had the highest number of dengue cases in the history of Brazil,” Marcelo Castro said.
“We’re losing badly in the battle against the mosquito.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on January 25 that the Zika virus was likely to spread across nearly all of the Americas.
Symptoms include mild fever, conjunctivitis and headache and the virus has already been found in 21 countries in the Caribbean, North and South America.
However, what the authorities are most worried about is the damage the virus can potentially cause babies in the womb.
Brazil has recorded a huge spike in cases of babies born with microcephaly and a number of Central and South American nations have asked women to delay pregnancy.
There have been 3,893 reported cases of microcephaly in Brazil since October compared with the previous annual average of just 160 cases.
Authorities in Rio de Janeiro have announced plans to prevent the spread of the Zika virus during the Olympic Games later this year.
Zika outbreak – which is being linked to severe birth defects – has caused growing concern in Brazil and abroad.
Inspections of Olympic facilities will begin four months before the Games to get rid of mosquito breeding grounds.
Daily sweeps will also take place during the Games.
However, fumigation would only be an option on a case-by-case basis because of concerns for the health of the athletes and visitors.
The Brazilian health ministry says it is also banking on the fact that the Games are taking place in the cooler, drier month of August when mosquitoes are far less evident and there are considerably less cases of mosquito-borne virus.
Brazil has the largest-known outbreak of the Zika virus which has been linked to a spike in birth defects in new-born babies whose mothers were bitten by the mosquito during pregnancy.
The US, Canada and EU health agencies have issued warnings saying pregnant women should avoid travelling to Brazil and other countries in the Americas which have registered cases of Zika.
Officials in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Jamaica have warned women to avoid pregnancy amid concerns over an illness causing severe birth defects.
The four countries recommended to delay pregnancies until more was known about the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
This followed an outbreak in Brazil.
Brazil said the number of babies born with suspected microcephaly – or abnormally small heads – had reached nearly 4,000 since October.
Meanwhile, US health authorities have warned pregnant women to avoid travelling to more than 20 countries in the Americas and beyond, where Zika cases have been registered.
The link between microcephaly and Zika virus has not been confirmed – but a small number of babies who died had the virus in their brain and no other explanation for the surge in microcephaly has been suggested.
The virus is not contagious and normally has flu-like symptoms.
In Colombia, Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria urged women to delay pregnancies for up to eight months.
“We are doing this because I believe it’s a good way to communicate the risk, to tell people that there could be serious consequences,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Similar warnings were issued in Ecuador, El Salvador and Jamaica.
However, women’s rights campaigners criticized the recommendations, saying women in the region often had little choice about becoming pregnant.
Monica Roa, a member of Women’s Link Worldwide group, said: “It’s incredibly naive for a government to ask women to postpone getting pregnant in a context such as Colombia, where more than 50% of pregnancies are unplanned and across the region where sexual violence is prevalent.”
Forty-nine babies with suspected microcephaly have died, Brazil’s health ministry says. In five of these cases an infection with Zika virus was found.
Brazil is experiencing the largest known outbreak of Zika, with most cases in the north-east. Others have been detected in the south-east, an area which includes Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
There has been a sharp rise in the number of cases of Zika in several other Latin American countries.
In Colombia, more than 13,500 cases have been reported.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued initial travel warnings to pregnant women last week, adding eight more places to the list on January 22. The warnings now extend to:
Central and South America: Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela
Caribbean: Barbados, Saint Martin, Haiti, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe
According to new figures, more Brazilian babies were born with abnormally small heads to mothers infected with the Zika virus.
There have been 3,893 cases of microcephaly since October, when the authorities first noticed a surge, up from 3,500 in last week’s report.
The Zika virus is transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also spreads dengue and chikungunya.
Brazil is experiencing the largest known outbreak of Zika.
The Zika virus has already killed five babies in the country, said the health ministry. Another 44 deaths are being investigated to determine if they were caused by Zika.
Last week, the Brazilian Health Minister Marcelo Castro said a new testing kit was being developed to identify quickly the presence of either of the three viruses.
Marcelo Castro also announced extra funds to speed the development of a vaccine for Zika “in record time”.
Photo Wikipedia
At the moment the only way to fight Zika is to clear standing water where mosquitoes breed.
There has been a sharp rise in the number of cases of Zika in several other Latin American countries.
In Colombia, more than 13,500 cases have been reported.
“We are the second country [in Latin America] after Brazil in the number of reported cases,” said Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria.
He has advised women in the country not to get pregnant for the rest of the outbreak, which he said could last until July.
In Bolivia, the authorities have reported the first case of a pregnant woman diagnosed with Zika.
“She has not travelled outside the country. This is a home-grown case,” Joaquin Monasterio, director of Health Services for the eastern department of Santa Cruz told the AFP news agency.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an alert on January 15 advising pregnant women to avoid travelling to Brazil and other Latin American and Caribbean countries where outbreaks of Zika have been registered.
The travel alert applies to Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.
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