The more researchers learn about the Zika virus, the scarier it appears, US health officials said on Monday as they urged more money for mosquito control and for developing vaccines and treatments.
Scientists increasingly believe the Zika virus sweeping through Latin America and the Caribbean causes devastating defects in fetal brains if women become infected during pregnancy.
“Everything we look at with this virus seems to be a bit scarier than we initially thought,” US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Deputy Director Anne Schuchat said at a White House briefing.
US President Barack Obama has sought about US$1.9 billion in emergency money to help fight the Zika epidemic internationally and to prepare in case the virus spreads in the US, but the request has stalled in the Republican-controlled Congress. Last week, the administration said it would use US$589 million in funds left over from the Ebola outbreak for some of that work.
However, that “is not enough for us to get the job done,” said Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institutes of Health, whose agency hopes to have a possible vaccine ready for first-stage safety testing in early fall. “It’s just a temporary stopgap.”
Reports from Brazil over the past year have said infections in pregnant women have been strongly linked to babies born with unusually small heads, a birth defect that can signal underlying brain damage.
Fauci and Schuchat cited growing reason for concern about Zika:
‧ Researchers have also linked Zika to stillbirths, miscarriages, eye problems and other complications, with complications throughout pregnancy.
‧ Brazilian researchers reported on Sunday that Zika preferentially targets developing brain cells. They used stem cells to study embryonic brain development and reported in the journal Science that virus taken from a Brazilian patient destroyed the growing neural cells in a few days.
‧ There is evidence that some adults may occasionally suffer serious effects from Zika. Researchers already were studying whether Guillain-Barre syndrome, a nerve condition that can cause paralysis, is linked to Zika.
And on Sunday, another Brazilian research team reported two Zika patients who suffered yet another problem, a brain inflammation that damages the coating of nerve cells in a way similar to multiple sclerosis.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese