WHO / ZIKA ONE YEAR

On 7 May 2015, tests conducted at Brazil’s national reference laboratory conclusively identified Zika in several samples. A new mosquito-borne disease had indeed arrived in the Americas, though no one knew what that might mean. FILE

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:00
• Production Date: 5 May 2016
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: MARGARET CHAN
• Corporate Name: WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION - WHO
• Subject Topical: DISEASE CONTROL
• Geographic Subject: BRAZIL
• MAMS Id: 1618246
• Parent Id: 1618246
• Alternate Title: unifeed160505d

Description

STORY: WHO / ZIKA ONE YEAR
TRT: 01:00
SOURCE: WHO / MINUSTAH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: FILE

Shotlist

FILE – MINUSTAH - 28 JANUARY 2016, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

1. Various shots, still water

FILE – WHO - AUGUST 2012 – HONDURAS

2. Close up, mosquito
3. Med shot, researchers studying mosquitoes

28 JANUARY 2016, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

4. Med shot, technician in the lab
5. Close up, technician’s hands

FILE – WHO - 19 FEBRUARY 2016, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

6. Wide shot, press room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Bruce Aylward, Executive Director, Outbreaks and Health Emergencies, World Health Organization:
“it is a huge band of countries and population stretches from the Americas, of course, right through Africa and much of Asia.”

FILE – WHO - 28 JANUARY 2016, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

8. Med shot, delegates
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization:
“The level of concern is high, as is the level of uncertainty. Questions abound. We need to get some answers quickly.”
10. Wide shot, assembly

28 JANUARY 2016, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

11. Close up, urine sample
12. Close up, technician’s hands

Storyline

On 7 May 2015, tests conducted at Brazil’s national reference laboratory conclusively identified Zika in several samples. A new mosquito-borne disease had indeed arrived in the Americas, though no one knew what that might mean.

In early February last year, doctors in the impoverished northeastern part of Brazil noticed a surge in the number of people complaining about a mild illness, with and without fever, characterized by rash, fatigue, joint pains, and red eyes. The illness was brief and recovery was spontaneous. A mild form of dengue, a mosquito-borne disease hyperendemic throughout the country, was initially suspected, but tests were negative in the vast majority of samples. Chikungunya, another mosquito-borne disease first detected in Africa in 1952, had hopped to Brazil in September 2014 and was likewise suspected. Again, tests results were negative.

At the end of March 2015, Brazil informed WHO that nearly 7,000 cases of an illness characterized by skin rash had been reported in six north-eastern states.

In late April, on a long shot, a laboratory in Bahia State researchers began to suspect that the disease might be spread by the area’s ubiquitous and dense mosquito population. Tthey tested for Zika, an exotic and poorly understood virus, carried by mosquitoes, that had never been seen in the Americas.

At the end of October 2015 Brazil informed WHO that 54 cases of microcephaly among newborns had been detected since August. The possibility that a mosquito bite during pregnancy could be linked to severe brain abnormalities in newborns alarmed the public and astonished scientists.

Though evidence was scant, paediatric neurologists in Brazil were convinced that the brain abnormalities were linked to Zika. Subsequent findings would prove them right.

Since then, Brazil has confirmed 1,198 cases of Zika-related microcephaly, and the disease has continued to spread through the Americas.