Bad news for Rory McIlroy as Zika virus reaches homestead Florida

Zika Virus: What We Know (And What We Don"t)

US officials announced that four cases of the virus has been contracted via mosquito bites in the state, where McIlroy resides with his fiance Erica Stoll in the coastal town of Jupiter, in a plush mansion he purchased in 2012.

When deciding against representing Ireland in golfs first appearance at the games in 104 years, McIlroy claimed that it was his desire to start a family with Stoll that precluded him from taking part.

He said: "After speaking with those closest to me, Ive come to realise that my health and my familys health comes before anything else. Even though the risk of infection from the Zika virus is considered low, it is a risk nonetheless and a risk I am unwilling to take.

"I will continue to endeavour to make my fans and fans of golf proud with my play on the course and my actions off it."

For Graeme McDowell the development will be far more jarring as his Floridian wife Kristian is expecting their child very soon.

McDowell followed McIlroys lead in forgoing the Olympics, stating that he was unwilling to travel beyond the America in the immediate build up to his childs birth for fear of contracting the virus.

I made my decision many months ago before I made the team, that I would not play or travel outside the US, where I and my family live, in the weeks running up to the birth.

Both McIlroy and McDowell, along with Shane Lowry and Darren Clarke, yesterday failed to make the cut at the US PGA Championship. Padraig Harrington will be Irelands sole representative in New Jersey over the weekend.

Source: http://www.independent.ie/sport/golf/bad-news-for-rory-mcilroy-as-zika-virus-reaches-homestead-florida-34924874.html

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West Nile bigger threat than Zika virus in SD

Mosquitos in South Florida transmitting Zika virus

If theres good advice for most South Dakotans regarding the Zika virus, its this: worry less about Zika and more about West Nile.

Those are the sentiments of South Dakota state epidemiologist Lon Kightlinger, who said most people in the state are safe from Zika if they dont travel to countries where the virus is. And if they do, they should be fine if they follow mosquito repellent rules like wearing long sleeves and repellent.

If youre pregnant or planning to get pregnant in the next two months, dont travel to those countries, Kightlinger said. For South Dakotans, its quite simple.

The Zika virus itself is not the cause for concern, experts say. Symptoms include a fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis or red eyes.

The signature danger of Zika is an infection during pregnancy that can cause a birth defect called microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects. Babies can also be born with eye defects, hearing deficits, and impaired growth.

The disease itself is not that severe, Kightlinger said. Its how stunningly and tragically bad the birth defects are. Thats what makes it so bad.

The Zika virus is spread mostly by the bite of an infected mosquito, an aggressive daytime biter, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.On Friday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott confirmed that four people in the Miami area are believed to have contracted the virus locally through mosquito bites. But health officials do not expect widespread outbreaks in this country.

The virus, of which there is no vaccination for, can be transmitted sexually. The CDC recently announced the first report of female-to-male sexual transmission of Zika. All previously reported cases of sexually transmitted Zika virus infection had been spread from men to their s*x partners.

The CDC recommends not having s*x or using condoms during the entirety of a pregnancy or if someone has a male partner who lives in or has traveled to an area with Zika.

That area includes Rio De Janeiro, where the 2016 Summer Olympics are set to kick off Aug. 5. Other countries include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.

If youre set to travel to one of those countries and you are in the high-risk category, consider going somewhere else, Kightlinger said.

If youre pregnant, go to Hawaii or Spain for vacation, he said.

And for those sitting tight, theres little to worry about.

In South Dakota, we just dont have mosquitos transmitting it, unlike West Nile, he said.

The Zika virus symptoms in an adult are very similar to West Nile, Kightlinger said, but people usually dont get sick enough to go to the hospital, and very rarely die.

West Nile, on the other hand, is also transmitted through infected mosquitos and has killed 32 people in South Dakota since 2002. More than 2,200 people have been infected since then and there have been six cases so far this year.

In South Dakota, we should put 99 percent of our effort in to West Nile, Kightlinger said. I know Zika is in the news, but its not here and very unlikely to spread.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Source: http://rapidcityjournal.com/lifestyles/west-nile-bigger-threat-than-zika-virus-in-sd/article_53974986-a721-573b-878f-5ca168339e2a.html

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A tool to support public health decisions on Zika virus predicts most planned interventions to be cost-effective

President Obama Receives a Briefing on the Zika Virus

A study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases presents a cost-effectiveness tool that can help guide decisions regarding resource allocation to fund interventions targeted at curtailing the ongoing Zika virus outbreak. Analyses using the tool suggest that proposed funds to combat Zika in the US and other countries would be cost-effective, based on quantification of the serious health conditions associated with Zika infection.

Cost-effectiveness analyses evaluate a public intervention according to the gain it can have for society and its cost in dollars. A common measure for the gain in health for society is a unit called the DALY, or disability-adjusted life year, which takes into account not only the lives that are saved by a given intervention but also the improved health that people enjoy if the intervention prevents them from getting sick. WHO considers an intervention "cost-effective" if the cost per DALY gained is less than three times the amount of per capita GDP (gross domestic product) of the country in question.

To build their tool, Alison Galvani, from Yale University in New Haven, USA, and colleagues focused on the two known serious consequences of Zika infection: microcephaly, a condition in which children are born with a small brain causing mental impairment, and Guillain-Barr syndrome or GBS, a potentially fatal disease that can cause neural damage and paralysis. The research team calculated the risks for both conditions based on latest information from the current Zika outbreaks in Brazil and Colombia.

The researchers estimated that between 50 and 210 out of every 10,000 mothers who are infected with Zika will deliver a child with microcephaly. For GBS, between 2 and 8 of every 10,000 people infected with Zika are estimated to experience this complication. The study predicts that if 40% of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean become infected with Zika, there could be more than 22,000 babies born with microcephaly and up to 204,000 cases of GBS. In previous Zika outbreaks in Micronesia and Polynesia, more than 66% of the population became infected with Zika.

The researchers applied their tool to evaluate the health impact that funds committed or proposed to combat Zika would need to achieve in order to be cost-effective. They specifically considered funds pledged by Brazil, Costa Rica, and the US. For the US, they analyzed President Obama"s request of $1.8 billion to combat Zika virus internationally. The President asked Congress for approval back in February, but no funds have yet been allocated and the request is still under consideration. Specific sections of the plan, such as the amount proposed to aid Puerto Rico in combatting Zika and the amount proposed for vaccine development were analyzed and found to be cost-effective if they achieved even modest reductions in the number of Zika infections in the context of the predicted size of the epidemic.

One of the few examples that were deemed as not cost-effective under certain circumstances was the use of genetically modified male mosquitoes that mate with wild female mosquitoes and do not produce offspring. The technology is estimated to cost $1.9 million for the first year and $384,000 every year after for a city of 50,000 inhabitants. The researchers found that for some resource-limited countries like El Salvador or Nicaragua, the number of Zika infections that would have to be prevented in order for the intervention to be cost-effective is higher than the entire population of the city. In other countries that have relatively low birth rates, such as Cuba or Thailand, very few pregnant women are at risk and thus the expected number of microcephaly cases is so low that release of the genetically modified mosquitoes would not be cost-effective either. There are, however, other countries such as Panama, which have the right combination of GDP and birth rate to make this new technology a good investment in preventing Zika infections.

"Our interactive application," the researchers say, "provides a flexible tool for informing public health policy via a rigorous cost-benefit analysis of available options." The tool is already being used by the Costa Rican Ministry of Health. They conclude that "given the potentially high health burden of Zika, the cost of inaction--or even insufficient action--may warrant significant expenditure."

The tool, freely available at http://zika.cidma.us/, can be used to interrogate a range of scenarios, and can be adjusted as we learn more about how the virus causes disease and the effectiveness of ways to prevent and treat infections.

Story Source:

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by PLOS. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Source: http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&ct2=us&usg=AFQjCNF_WCieDDjnlSPQnawSWll03F7JeQ&clid=c3a7d30bb8a4878e06b80cf16b898331&cid=52779112990007&ei=-89AV6DaFonR3QGY3aGYDw&url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160520142906.htm

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Pregnant women warned over zika virus

BREAKING: WHO Says "Zika Virus Outbreak Will Spread in Americas Countries"

The Ministry of Health and health professionals are advising pregnant women to avoid travelling to areas with the mosquito-borne zika disease.

Aedes aegypti mosquitos, which can carry the zika virus, are seen in containers at a lab in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Photo: AFP

New Zealand government website SafeTravel lists Samoa as the only Pacific country with zika.

Secretariat of the Pacific Community senior epidemiologist Dr Salanieta Saketa told RNZ International seven other countries and territories across the region - Vanuatu, Fiji, Cook Islands, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, the Federated States of Micronesia and Easter Island - have had cases of the virus, however those cases were not recent.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday the virus was likely to spread to all countries in the Americas except Canada and Chile.

An outbreak in Latin America has been linked to an increase in the number of babies being born with microcephaly, or smaller than usual brains and heads.

Brazil has been the worst-hit country, prompting concerns ahead of the Rio Olympics in August.

Some countries in South and Central America have advised women in affected areas to avoid becoming pregnant for up to two years.

WHO has advised pregnant women planning to travel to areas where zika is circulating to consult a healthcare provider before travelling and on return.

Travel advice

In New Zealand, the Ministry of Health is advising women who are pregnant, or plan to become pregnant, to take extra care to avoid exposure to the virus.

The ministry"s deputy director of public health, Dr Shirley Crawshaw, said they should avoid areas with high levels of zika transmission as a precaution.

"If they are going to these areas, then they must be prepared to take protective measures such as wearing long sleeves, wearing long trousers, using insect repellent.

"If they can avoid going, or delay going, then at the moment that would be the advice to that particular group."

Travel Doctor managing director Wendy Penno advised pregnant woman to delay their travel plans as the situation was developing daily.

There was no vaccine but attempts could be made to limit mosquito bites, she said.

"The advice would be don"t go to an area that potentially has zika virus at the moment if you"re pregnant."

College of Midwives advisor Sheridan Massey said pregnant women should discuss any travel plans with their maternity carer.

"When women are planning travel during their pregnancy, [we] encourage them to talk to their midwife - get all the facts, and with the help of their midwife, about how they want to go forward."

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which runs the SafeTravel website, has advised any concerned travellers to consult a doctor prior to their departure.

How to avoid being bitten:Related

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/294920/pregnant-women-warned-over-zika-virus

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