COLOMBIA LINKS ZIKA VIRUS TO RARE NERVE DISORDER DEATHS.

Colombia says three people have died after contracting the Zika virus
and developing a rare nerve disorder.

Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria said there was a "causal connection" between Zika, the Guillain-Barre disorder and the three deaths.

Earlier, Brazilian scientists said they had detected for the first time
active samples of Zika in urine and saliva. However, it is not clear whether the virus can be transmitted through bodily fluids.
Zika, a mosquito-borne disease, has been linked to cases of babies born in Brazil with microcephaly - underdeveloped brains.

"We have confirmed and attributed three deaths to Zika," said the
head of Colombia's National Health Institute, Martha Lucia Ospina.
"In this case, the three deaths were preceded by Guillain-Barre
syndrome."

Guillain-Barre is a rare disorder in which the body's immune system
attacks part of the nervous system. It isn't normally fatal.
Ms Ospina said another six deaths were being investigated for possible links to Zika. "Other cases (of deaths linked to Zika) are going to emerge," she said. "The world is realising that Zika can be deadly. The
mortality rate is not very high, but it can be deadly."

Mr Gaviria said one of the fatalities took place in San Andres and the other two in Turbo, in Antioquia department. UK virologist Prof Jonathan Ball, of the University of Nottingham, told
the BBC: "We have been saying Zika has been associated with
Guillain-Barre. One of the complications of that could be respiratory
failure. But it is still probably a very rare event."

Although Zika usually causes mild, flu-like symptoms, it has been
linked to thousands of suspected birth defects. However, it has not
yet been proved that Zika causes either microcephaly or Guillain-
Barre.

The main method of infection is via mosquito bites but scientists in
Brazil say tests on two patients revealed Zika can be found in other
body fluids.

REFERENCE : MEDICAL WORLD NEWS.

Comments

The Sphere

Photograph by Elena Saavedra Buckley. Once when I was about twelve I was walking down the dead-end road in Albuquerque where I grew up, around twilight with a friend. Far beyond the end of the road was a mountain range, and at that time of evening it flattened into a matte indigo wash, like a mural. While kicking down the asphalt we saw a small bright light appear at the top of the peaks, near where we knew radio towers to occasionally emit flashes of red. But this glare, blinding and colorless, grew at an alarming rate. It looked like a single floodlight and then a tight swarm beginning to leak over the edge of the summit. My friend and I became frightened, and as the light poured from the crest, our murmurs turned into screams. We stood there, clutching our heads, screaming. I knew this was the thing that was going to come and get me. It was finally going to show me the horrifying wiring that lay just behind the visible universe and that was inside of me too. And then, a couple se...

The Historical Future of Trans Literature

Whatever happens against custom we say is against Nature, yet there is nothing whatsoever which is not in harmony with her. May Nature’s universal reason chase away that deluded ecstatic amazement which novelty brings to us. —Michel de Montaigne If you were trying to get anywhere in the late thirteenth century, the Hereford Mappa Mundi would not have been particularly helpful; the map is rife with topographical omissions, compressions, and errors—the most egregious of which is perhaps the mislabeling of Africa as Europe and vice-versa. Of course, as any medievalist will tell you, mappa mundi were not intended for cartographic accuracy anyway. Rather, they were pictorial histories, encyclopedias of the world’s mythological and theological narratives, records of medical fact and fable. Notable places—Carthage, Rome, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Jericho—appeared, but their placement on the map emphasized their symbolic import, rather than their geographical specificity. Thus, ...

DEMOCRACY DAY SPEECH BY PMB; MAY 29 2016

www.naijaloaded.com My compatriots, It is one year today since our administration came into office. It has been a year of triumph, consolidation, pains and achievements. By age, instinct and experience, my preference is to look forward, to prepare for the challenges that lie ahead and rededicate the administration to the task of fixing Nigeria. But I believe we can also learn from the obstacles we have overcome and the progress we made thus far, to help strengthen the plans that we have in place to put Nigeria back on the path of progress. We affirm our belief in democracy as the form of government that best assures the active participation and actual benefit of the people. Despite the many years of hardship and disappointment the people of this nation have proved inherently good, industrious tolerant, patient and generous. The past years have witnessed huge flows of oil revenues. From 2010 average oil prices were $100 per barrel. But economic and security co...

TOBI'S DESK

Search This Blog