- Science Takes a Fresh Swat at Zika (bloomberg.com)
Among the trial methods: genetic engineering, radiation, larvicide...Until there’s a vaccine or treatment for the Zika virus, the quickest way to control its spread is to attack the mosquitoes that carry it. Biotech companies and governments are wielding their best weapons, all of which involve breeding the bloodsuckers in labs and applying treatments that render them unable to reproduce or spread viruses, then releasing them into the wild...In Brazil, Oxitec says it expects approval within weeks to sell the government a bioengineered mosquito incapable of having offspring...The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency has offered to show Brazilian authorities how to sterilize male mosquitoes with radiation...Australian scientists say they might be able to block transmission of Zika by infecting mosquitoes with a naturally occurring bacterium. And MosquitoMate...is experimenting with a way to dust the bugs with a hormone-based larvicide...These strategies mark a sharp departure from the old pesticide-centric method of "spray-’n’-pray." So far, "we don’t really have any method that’s working,"...
- Health officials say major Zika outbreak unlikely in Nevada (reviewjournal.com)Zika Virus (cdc.gov)
Health officials say a disease believed to have caused a major increase in birth defects among Brazilian-born babies is unlikely to flourish in Nevada, though travelers could bring it to the state...As of Thursday, 31 cases of Zika virus disease have been confirmed in the United States, but all are related to travel outside of the country, Southern Nevada Health District Disease Investigation and Intervention Specialist Tony Fredrick said. There are no known cases in Nevada...Travel could bring infected people from these regions to the Silver State, said James M. Wilson, director of the Nevada State Infectious Disease Forecast Station at the University of Nevada, Reno...Trapping efforts in Southern Nevada have not shown any sign of the Aedes species of mosquito, which is believed to have been the primary cause of most recent infections...
- Genes, bugs and radiation: WHO backs new weapons in Zika fight (reuters.com)Brazil reports more cases of microcephaly under investigation (reuters.com)FDA recommends ban on blood collections from Zika-affected areas (reuters.com)Zika vaccine shows promise in mice, lifting maker Inovio (reuters.com)
Countries battling the Zika virus should consider new ways to curb disease-carrying mosquitoes, including testing the release of genetically modified insects and bacteria that stop their eggs hatching...Given the magnitude of the Zika crisis, WHO encourages affected countries and their partners to boost the use of both old and new approaches to mosquito control as the most immediate line of defence...WHO also highlighted the potential of releasing sterile irradiated male mosquitoes, a technique that has been developed at the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency...Fighting the infection at source by eliminating the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes responsible for transmission is moving up the public health agenda, especially as the same insects also spread dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever...An alternative approach uses Wolbachia bacteria, which do not infect humans but cause the eggs of females that mate with infected males to fail to hatch. Mosquitoes carrying Wolbachia have been shown to reduce mosquitoes' ability to transmit dengue...
- We Can Beat Zika And Malaria–If The FDA Allows (forbes.com)The Emerging Zika PandemicEnhancing Preparedness (jama.jamanetwork.com)
Zika virus infection, the scary new disease for which there is no vaccine or treatment, is “spreading explosively” from Africa and Southeast Asia...The United States and 20 other countries...have reported cases of the virus since Brazil reported the first cases of local transmission last May. Delivered by varieties of mosquitoes...it has boosted interest in mosquito-borne diseases...What’s needed is...modern genetic engineering techniques to more effectively prevent mosquitoes from delivering the viruses and parasites that cause disease….The FDA has long delayed the approval of a November 2011 application for a field trial to test a new biological control agent for the mosquito species Aedes aegypti. Although that field trial is concerned specifically with dengue fever, A. aegypti...also transmits Zika...Oxitec has created a new way to control Aedes aegypti. Male mosquitoes are bred in the laboratory with a specific genetic mutation that, in the absence of a certain chemical, causes their offspring to die before reaching maturity...This safe and effective control technique has been approved in Brazil and open field trials of these mosquitoes have been conducted in Brazil, the Cayman Islands, Panama and Malaysia...Eight months have passed since FDA promised last May to publish for public comment a routine environmental assessment of the Oxitec field trial in Florida. Only after FDA reviews the comments will FDA consider whether to grant approval. This delay is unnecessary and unconscionable.
- Zika update: Vaccine race swells, PaxVax CEO on how to stop ‘chasing epidemics’
As the Zika virus continues to spread, more biotechs are announcing their Zika vaccine programs. Meriden,.. Protein Sciences,..GeoVax Labs and.. PaxVax are the latest...Getting caught off-guard by epidemics like this has happened time and time again. And "chasing" outbreaks instead of anticipating them rarely results in a vaccine being developed in time. Witness the most recent Ebola epidemic: Merck's experimental vaccine, the furthest along in a crowded field, won't be submitted for regulatory approval until 2017, more than two years after the outbreak started...we had known about Ebola for decades...Companies got a head start in 2014 from partly developed candidates that had been shelved away. It is not so with Zika. "Almost everyone is pretty much starting from scratch...To avoid this and have programs in place before an outbreak hits...governments and nongovernmental organizations...should create economic incentives for companies to make vaccines for neglected diseases like Zika...the FDA's priority review voucher system, in which a company developing a vaccine for a neglected tropical disease receives a transferable voucher for expedited FDA review. Malaria and dengue have been on the list of neglected diseases for years, but Zika is not yet on the list
- Here’s what you need to know about Zika virus (cnbc.com)Zika Virus (cdc.gov)U.S. researchers call for WHO to take rapid action on Zika (reuters.com)Four Zika cases found in New York among returning travelers (reuters.com)Zika virus: US scientists say vaccine '10 years away' (bbc.com)
A new mosquito-borne virus is fast spreading across the Americas and the Caribbean, with cases reported among travelers returning to the U.S...Zika virus outbreaks are proliferating across multiple countries and territories in the region, such as Puerto Rico, Mexico, Brazil, Panama and Venezuela. They have been associated with increased reports of birth defects, including babies with very small heads, and of paralysis in adults...There is no vaccine or specific drug to treat the virus.
- How is Zika transmitted?
- Birth defects, paralysis?
- How the outbreak started
- Could it reach the US?
- Prevention