Zika Virus – emerging info / Affecting your Travels??

I am surprised this subject has not been raised as yet, with new information emerging every few days.
Travelling at the moment, i am bound to the usual International TV news, CNN, BBC World etc at my hotels.

Disturbing footage of people from a variation of countries and across the social spectrum, appear to be commonly developing paralysis now. Also Peripheral Neuropathy (Nerve damage to the peripherals of the body, hands, feet etc…), and loss of muscle control, resulting in respiratory dysfunction. In the BBC World clip, several were on ITU respirators, or having cardiac problems in this brief 10 minute news report in from Brazil.
Men and women, of all ages, from many countries, are now beginning to show these symptoms, not just caution for pregnant women.
Several cases have now been found in Europe, but linked to travel to these affected areas, mainly at present, South and Central America.

I think this is a very important issue for All of us regular travellers, whether for business or leisure, and a developing and revealing consideration for our travel plans.

Currently the WHO state there is No prevention, and No medications to use to treat these very life threatening situations.

It would be very useful if others were to be able to share their thoughts and experiences on here, Perhaps more so for those like myself, in the Medical / Healthcare fields, Travel industry, and governmental advisory areas, Travel and health insurance etc.

There is not a plan unlike Ebola, where this can be confined or treated in a set or even probable direction. Clearly there is far more to this than we originally thought. For me having taken a holiday in Panama after Xmas, I would have extreme concerns at this new information.
I will not be travelling to these areas for the time being, not just in the Tropical forests, but also in cities, where stagnant water and lava from the Mosquitos appears to be the currently held cause.

This should be one of the most important health issues to arise in many years for travellers at this time, and we may well discover much more as time goes by. It transcends borders, and we know so little about its prognosis, and there is no current treatment established.

A balanced, sensible assessment needs to be made for travel at this current time, with a keen eye on WHO advice and also the FCO travellers advice updates in my view.

CNN Just showed that 220,000 Brazilian soldiers, are to spend the next week around the country giving information and trying to fumigate as many areas as possible..

I’m due to head to Rio and São Paulo in May, my company has already advised me that it is a ‘non-essential’ visit, so can be delayed or cancelled if needs be. But as a man, with no more kids planned, I’m still going ahead at present. However, it depends what new developments take place in the next month.

Marcus, I agree, this is a very important problem and I am surprised it is fading from the news media already.

With very few exceptions (for example, flu) viral infections are not susceptible to any kind of chemotherapy so we either have to develop a vaccine, or just avoid catching them.

Developing effective vaccination or immunisation against viral disease is not easy. There are some outstanding successes (smallpox, yellow fever) some successes achieved only with great difficulty (polio) and plenty of nasty viral diseases where there has been no success (for example, dengue). I think we can be optimistic in the medium term, there are a lot of very good laboratories working as hard as they can on a zika vaccine, but it will probably be years.

So the action has to be – avoid catching it. Elimination of the mosquito vector is an essential, but it requires political will, money and effort. Mosquito control can easily go backwards – at one time, malaria-carrying mosquitoes had been almost completely eliminated from Venezuela – now they are back in force. I applaud the action of the Brazilian government in using the military to run a campaign to help the population eliminate places where mosquitoes may breed.

Otherwise, if travelling to any place where zika is endemic (Brazil, Colombia) or may become endemic (any country in the Americas apart from Canada and Chile, and including the most Southern parts of the USA) care to avoid mosquito bites is the only thing: suitable clothing, and high strength insect repellent on all exposed skin.

My own opinion is that women who are pregnant or where there is any possibility of pregnancy should not travel to the danger area.