Suspected links bet-ween the Zika virus and two neurological disorders, micr-ocephaly in babies and Guillain-Barre syndrome, should be confirmed within weeks, the World Health Organisati-on said on Fr
Suspected links bet-ween the Zika virus and two neurological disorders, micr-ocephaly in babies and Guillain-Barre syndrome, should be confirmed within weeks, the World Health Organisati-on said on Friday.
A sharp increase in birth defects in Brazil has trigger-ed a global health emergency over the mosquito-borne virus and spurred a race to develop a vaccine and better diagnostic tests. The WHO said US government scientists and an Indian biotechnology firm were currently frontrunners in the race to develop a vaccine and for the first time it advised pregnant women to consider delaying travel to Zika-infected areas. “It seems indeed that the link with Zika (and microcephaly) is becoming more and more probable, so I think that we need a few more weeks and a few more studies to have this straight,” Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO assistant dir-ector-general said.
Studies of pregnant Latin Ameri-can women who have had the Zika virus and due to deliver their babies soon should yield evidence, Ms Kieny said.
Guillain-Barre syndrome, in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the nervous system, causes gradual weakness in the legs, arms and upper body and sometimes total paralysis. In a statement the WHO reiterated it was not recommending any general travel or trade restrictions, but added: “Women who are pregnant should consider delaying travel to any area where locally acquired Zika infection is occurring.”
Brazil, centre of the Zika outbreak that has spread to more than 30 countries, is hosting the Rio 2016 Olympics. On vaccines, Ms Kieny said it would take at least 18 months to start large-scale clinical trials of candidate shots. “Two vaccine candidates seem to be more advanced: a DNA vaccine from the US National Institutes for Health (NIH) and an inactivated product from Bharat Biotech in India,” she said.
The NIH is working on a DNA-based vaccine that uses the same approach as one being developed for West Nile virus. India’s Bharat said last week its experimental vaccine would start pre-clinical trials in animals imminently. Overall, around 15 groups are working on Zika vaccines, including France’s Sanofi (SASY.PA), as well as researchers in Brazil, who announced a new partnership with the University of Texas on Thursday.
The road to developing a preventative shot against the disease is strewn with hurdles, however, not least because the group viewed as most at risk are pregnant women. Improved diagnostic tests are also viewed as critical to fighting the disease and Ms Kieny said new test kits were being rapidly developed and could be available in weeks.
Researchers in Brazil are scrambling to determine whether Zika has caused a major rise in microcephaly, or abnormally small heads in newborns, with more than 4,000 suspected cases of the condition reported to date. Brazil has confirmed more than 400 of those cases as microcephaly and has identified the presence of Zika in 17 babies, but a link has yet to be proven.
Still, many scientists are convinced that the link is real and new evidence of Zika in the brain of an aborted foetus, reported on Wednesday, has added to the case.
