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State gets $3.6 million to fight Zika virus
The Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) announced recently that it has received more than $3.6 million from the CDC to track and combat the Zika virus in Indiana.
"We have been working diligently," said State Health Commissioner Jerome Adams, M.D. and M.P.H., "to educate Hoosiers about their risks at home and while travelling and to ensure that Indiana is prepared for Zika should we see local transmission here."
The funds are to be received over the next five years, with $2 million received in $400,000 annual increments. The $400,000 will be used to track microcephaly, develop apps for the Indiana Birth Defects and Problems Registry and conduct case reviews for infants affected by microcephaly. The rest of the funds will be used to investigate illnesses, monitor and control mosquitoes, prepare public health and raise awareness of Zika disease.
Most people can be infected without ever knowing it. Those who do feel symptoms experience mild fever, rash, joint pain and pink eye (conjunctivitis). Rarely -- only 6 cases in the U.S. -- an infected person will develop Guillan-Barre syndrome, in which the immune system attacks the peripheral nervous system to cause weakness or tingling sensations in the legs, arms and upper body and possible paralysis. More information about GBS is available at www.ninds.nih.gov .
The greatest threat is to unborn children, who experience eye and ear defects, premature birth and microcephaly (a small head and underdeveloped brain). Zika was first found in Uganda in 1947, but it wasn't until last year that it was suspected to be the cause of an increase in microcephaly cases in Brazil. The CDC confirmed the suspicion in April, but added, "It does not mean, however, that all women who have Zika virus infection during pregnancy will have babies with problems."
There are currently no vaccines or treatments for Zika disease.
Zika disease is carried by the Aedes aegypti and the Aedes albopictus mosquitoes found in tropical regions. Only A. albopictus is found in Indiana. So far there have been no Indiana cases acquired from local mosquitoes, but there have been 27 cases from travelling abroad. Of the 1,962 cases reported in the U.S., the CDC reports that only six were from local mosquitoes. Twenty-two were sexually transmitted, and the rest were from travel in regions like Central and South America, the Caribbean and Puerto Rico.
From Wednesday to Friday, the number of local-transmission cases remained the same, but the total number of U.S. cases rose by 144 people, with sexual transmission increasing by 6 people and GBS 1 person. Only Wyoming, South Dakota and Alaska have no reported cases.
"Keep in mind," Darrel Brackney, Environmental Health Specialist for the Putnam County Health Department (PCHD), said, "that ten years ago West Nile virus was unheard of too. For five or six years we've had at least one location positive for West Nile in Putnam County. This year there's just been one location."
Local transmission is currently limited to an area of 2.5 square miles in Miami, but experts agree that other parts of the U.S. will eventually exhibit local transmission as well.
Based on weather, travel and poverty rates, scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research estimate that southern regions of the U.S. -- extending in a U-line from Sacramento to Dallas to New York City -- are most at-risk of seeing local transmission from A. aegypti (they do not include information for A. albopictus, which some scientists believe does not pose as great a threat). But the scientists also caution that, even in the described area, local transmission will only occur in dozens due to different lifestyles and better living conditions than those in other areas affected by the disease. (See "Potential Zika Virus Risk Estimated for 50 U.S. Cities" at www2.ucar.edu.)
The ISDH recommends the following precautions:
-- Avoid places and times (early morning and evening) when mosquitoes bite
-- Stay in screened or air-conditioned rooms or use a bed-net
-- Use DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE) or IR3535 insect repellents
-- Cover exposed skin; wear clothes and gear treated with permethrin
-- Eliminate standing water; a bottle cap can be a mosquito breeding ground
Brackney reported that the PCHD has free briquets available for ponds, fountains and bird baths.
More information is available at the PCHD (putnamhealthindiana.org or 765-658-2782), the ISDH (www.in.gov/isdh/ or 800-382-9480), the CDC (www.cdc.gov or 800-232-4636), the National Center for Atmospheric Research (ncar.ucar.edu), the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (www.healthdata.org) and various scientific publications.