Brazil urges geographic area to coordinate fight against Zika

Brazil's health minister on Wed urged occupant countries to figure along within the fight against the Zika virus and aforementioned U.S. specialists would arrive next week to start work on finding a immunogen.

Alarm is mounting over the virus' unfold. the globe Health Organization (WHO), that declared a public health emergency, says the virus has been transmitted in a minimum of thirty two countries, from South America to the Western Pacific.

Brazil's high health official Marcelo Fidel Castro Ruz aforementioned the region required to "exchange data, create alliances and discuss what coordinated action we are able to want management this epidemic."

Brazil, that has been hardest hit by Zika, aforementioned on Tues that four,074 cases of infants with severe birth defects can be connected to the mosquito-borne virus, that there's no immunogen.

"On Feb. 11, U.S. technical specialists can arrive in Brazil to carry a high-level meeting wherever they'll confirm the primary steps and timetable for developing this immunogen," Fidel Castro Ruz aforementioned going into a gathering of regional health ministers in national capital.

In a 16-point statement issued later, the ministers united to share a lot of data on the virus, strengthen public awareness campaigns at border crossings and airports additionally on bolster coaching of medical workers on a way to stop and treat Zika.

Zika has been connected to a congenital defect referred to as abnormalcy - within which babies square measure born with abnormally little heads and underdeveloped brains - and is spreading chop-chop within the Americas.

There is, however, no established link and therefore the absence of abnormalcy in different Zika-hit countries was confusing, aforementioned Colombia's Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria.

"We have twenty,000 confirmed cases of Zika," Gaviria told reporters outside the meeting. "Yet we do not have one confirmed case of abnormalcy. If you extrapolate the rates in Brazil to Colombia, we should always have tens, even many cases."

The speedy unfold of Zika through terra firma has semiconductor diode governments to issue travel warnings advising pregnant girls to not jaunt infected zones. Some airlines have conjointly offered refunds to passengers.

Echoing Brazil's reassurances that there was no risk of canceling the summer Olympics in Diamond State Janeiro|Rio|city|metropolis|urban center} de Janeiro this year, Gaviria aforementioned the Colombian government wasn't worrying for currently a couple of slide in traveller numbers.

Drugmakers globally square measure athletics to supply a immunogen for Zika, however manufacturing a secure immunogen is strewn with hurdles and full restrictive approval may take years.

Carissa Etienne, the Pan yank Health Organization's (PAHO) director, earlier aforementioned the body required $8.5 million to assist countries tackle the health emergency.