The global community is looking to old pesticides like DDT to end the problem where it starts, the Zika Forest. (click here)
February 24, 2016
By Melissa Healy
...Epidemiologists are poring over, (click here) and filling in, a narrative of outbreaks of Zika since its 1947 discovery in Uganda’s Zika Forest.
As population scientists track the virus’ migration out of Africa and into Asia and the Americas, they will pay particularly close attention to evidence that could help them figure out whether cases of microcephaly followed in its wake but were undetected at the time.
The tiny island nation of Yap in the South Pacific may provide the most useful record of Zika infection. Experts estimate that in 2007, between 68% and 88% of residents over the age of 2 were infected with the virus.
Islands can offer a uniquely revealing picture of outbreaks, said Derek Cummings, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Florida. Their generally small populations tend to be exposed to one new pathogen at a time, and that offers a clearer picture of a virus’ immediate impact and its longer-term health consequences, he said....
February 24, 2016
By Melissa Healy
...Epidemiologists are poring over, (click here) and filling in, a narrative of outbreaks of Zika since its 1947 discovery in Uganda’s Zika Forest.
As population scientists track the virus’ migration out of Africa and into Asia and the Americas, they will pay particularly close attention to evidence that could help them figure out whether cases of microcephaly followed in its wake but were undetected at the time.
The tiny island nation of Yap in the South Pacific may provide the most useful record of Zika infection. Experts estimate that in 2007, between 68% and 88% of residents over the age of 2 were infected with the virus.
Islands can offer a uniquely revealing picture of outbreaks, said Derek Cummings, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Florida. Their generally small populations tend to be exposed to one new pathogen at a time, and that offers a clearer picture of a virus’ immediate impact and its longer-term health consequences, he said....
