Zika in 30 seconds: What you need to know today
Have 30 seconds? Here’s what you need to know about the Zika virus.
Friday, June 30
A programming note
This will be the final weekly edition of Zika in 30 Seconds. Thank you for reading as, over the last 17 months, we’ve tracked the developing science, the progress toward a vaccine, and the many questions still unanswered about Zika virus.
Still, our coverage of Zika will continue. Going forward we’ll use this space to alert you to important news about Zika as it arises — so stay tuned.
And for more regular updates about Zika, follow STAT’s senior writer for global health Helen Branswell on Twitter.
On people’s lips
“The fight against Zika virus is not a 100-m race, but rather a marathon in which science and public health need to work hand in hand for the benefit of our peoples.” — Carissa F. Etienne, director of Pan American Health Organization
What lies ahead
The dramatic global rise of Zika in 2016 was followed by an equally dramatic decline by the end of that year — the reasons for which epidemiologists are still sorting out. But, global health expert Dr. Peter Hotez writes, “While countries such as Brazil no longer seem to be sustaining new transmission, there are new foci popping up in additional Latin American countries, including Ecuador and Peru on the Pacific Coast of South America, as well as in Argentina and Bolivia.”
In the U.S., he says, Florida seems less at risk this year than it was last year, when the state saw more than 200 cases of local Zika transmission.
But, Hotez writes, spread of the virus in Mexico may mean that local cases in Texas crop up later this year.
The bottom line, he says? We’re in a “new normal” for Zika and other similar viruses, both in the U.S. and globally.
Friday, June 23
What’s new this week
- The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said it would fund a study in Guatemala to determine whether Zika virus is capable of attacking the still-developing brains of newborns. (STAT)
- Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which can carry Zika virus, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever, are more common across the United States than previously believed, federal experts reported. (NBC News)
- The claim that six pregnant women in Harris County, in Texas, had contracted Zika, was retracted. (Houston Chronicle)
When seeking a diagnosis
- Testing for Zika virus RNA in placental tissue can confirm Zika infection when the mother’s blood tests are inconclusive, according to a new study. The authors emphasize that clinicians should continue to consider testing for Zika RNA when a definitive diagnosis has not been reached. (Medscape)
Today’s must-read
- A clinic mix-up leaves pregnant woman in dark about Zika risk. (Kaiser Health News)
Friday, June 16
What’s new this week
- A group of Florida lawmakers is urging the U.S. Army to hold a hearing on its plan to give Sanofi an exclusive license to develop a Zika virus vaccine, a move that has raised concerns the product may be priced too high for many Americans, even though it was developed with taxpayer funds. (STAT)
- Six pregnant women in Harris County, in Texas, have tested positive for Zika, the first cases of the mosquito-borne disease to be reported in the area in 2017. (Houston Chronicle)
Learning the hard way
- When Zika struck last year, officials in Miami-Dade County immediately began fogging with permethrin, the active ingredient in home bug-killers such as Raid. Permethrin was sprayed at least seven times, but by the end of August, the county realized the poison had little effect and stopped using it. Officials didn’t get around to testing which pesticides kill Aedes aegypti until October — midway through Zika season. (Miami New Times)
Today’s must-read
- Zika in America: One mother’s saga (Kaiser Health News)
Friday, June 9
What’s new this week
- A new CDC report quantifies Zika’s toll on pregnancies in U.S. territories. Five percent of Zika-affected pregnancies resulted in birth defects, researchers found, and the risk was highest in the first trimester, declining each trimester after (New York Times)
- Health concerns about the pesticide naled — used in Florida and elsewhere to battle Zika — were again raised by a new study. Higher concentrations of naled in the cord blood of Chinese infants was correlated with impaired motor skills at age 9 months (Miami Herald)
Inside STAT: Fading from view
The public’s sense of alarm over the Zika outbreak has subsided — posing a challenge to health officials who want to keep it on the radar of the people who need to pay attention. Puerto Rico declared its outbreak over this week; Brazil said its emergency was over in May. In the United States, summer approaches with little discussion of the virus outside public health circles. But the risk to pregnant women traveling abroad is still real, and not going to change anytime soon. Read more.
Today’s must-read
- A Washington state mother on the challenges of raising a daughter with microcephaly (Newsworks)
Friday, June 2
What’s new this week
- The WHO last Friday announced India’s first three cases of the Zika virus, including two pregnant women — but since then questions have been brewing. More on that below. (WHO)
- A new Discovery Channel documentary about mosquito-borne diseases, slated to air July 6, will feature Jeremy Renner as narrator (The Hollywood Reporter)
- Zika testing in May rose to levels not seen since last August, according to EHR vendor athenahealth (Healthcare IT News)
India’s Zika silence
In the wake of India’s disclosure last month to the WHO that it had detected three cases of Zika, a number of questions have been raised about why the cases weren’t announced months ago. The Washington Post reports that health ministers said they knew about the country’s first case of Zika back in November of 2016, but they didn’t alert the public because they didn’t want “people to start panicking.” Meanwhile, The Wire points out, the country’s disease surveillance index still says zero cases of Zika have been found in the country, and the WHO has moved India up from the safest category 4 to category 2 in its ranking of Zika risk.
How microcephaly happens
A new paper sheds further light on why the Zika virus takes its most dramatic toll on the developing brain: Because a protein found in those cells helps the virus reproduce. The protein, called Musashi-1, is found in high levels in precursors to neurons — but if Zika virus is present it acts like a sponge, depriving the neurons of the protein. In fact, one family with a congenital mutation in the Musashi-1 gene has two children with microcephaly, the researchers point out, adding further evidence that this protein is key to normal brain development. That discovery may hopefully help scientists devise a way to stop the damage from occurring.
Today’s must-read
- US taxpayers are funding a Zika vaccine. Let’s make sure US patients can afford it (STAT)
Friday, May 26
What’s new this week
- Sequencing the genome of Zika virus has indicated that in almost every affected country, Zika was circulating for months — or even years — before the first cases were reported (The Atlantic)
- Though good news for the broader population, a drop in Zika cases in Latin America has made it hard for research studies on the virus to recruit enough participants to have meaningful results (Nature)
- By removing protections for preexisting conditions, the GOP health bill may make insurance prohibitively expensive both for pregnant women who have had Zika and for infants born with microcephaly (Mother Jones)
Response, in retrospect
The GAO this week released on the US government’s response to the Zika epidemic, concluding that the CDC and many states were underprepared to battle the outbreak. The report finds that the federal government could do better specifically on distributing and regulating diagnostic tests and on communicating geographic risk
