“Dealing with the Zika virus is challenging, unprecedented, and tragic”, according to CDC Director Tom Frieden MD www.cdc.gov speaking at the National Press Club on May 26, 2016. “We have learned an enormous amount about the virus but responding to Zika is extraordinarily complex.”
“Imagine that an earthquake could be stopped. In public health, we have the ability to stop many of the health equivalents of earthquakes, but we will need to be able to use all the tools available to resolve the affects to humans from the Zika virus.”
He explained, “It is clear that Zika causes microcephaly and other birth defects and it is also known that even asymptomatic infections with Zika during pregnancy can result in microcephaly. We also know that Zika almost certainly causes Guillain-Barre syndrome.”
Controlling the mosquito that causes Zika is extremely difficult as it bites day and night with eggs lasting more than a year. Plus the mosquitos will often bite four or five people at once which greatly increases spreading the virus.
Dr. Frieden reports, “To make it even more difficult, there are other routes of transmission as Zika can spread sexually which adds a new level of risk. There is also the issue of blood safety as it relates to Zika. Fortunately, Roche and the FDA have come out with a highly sensitive test that is already being used in Puerto Rico to screen out the blood supply to keep it safe.”
Some progress has been made as far as diagnosing the virus. For example, CDC laboratory scientists now have a rapid and highly sensitive test accurately able to detect the virus in someone who is acutely infected.
As Dr. Friedan stressed, “There is an urgent need for action by public health agencies and the federal government to attack this crisis situation. Also, we have to start on projects to develop better diagnostic tests along with developing new vector controls, as well as a new vaccine.”
Cooperation between countries is happening globally. The Global Health Security Agenda with more than 70 countries is working to build up the capacity of countries to let the whole world know which countries are ready to fight the virus and helping those countries that do not have resources to fight disastrous health threats.
To continue the fight internationally, CDC has put together resources to create what is called the “Global Rapid Response Team” (GRRT). Currently, there are more than 300 staff involved, with 50 people on call at any one time. So far, they have been deployed at least five times to deal with Ebola, Zika, polio, and yellow fever.
Dr. Frieden summed up by explaining his frustration at not being able to change the course of an epidemic because of all of the challenges related to funding and administrative details. We must take the opportunity to learn the lessons that apply to epidemics so we can surge in when there is a problem.
Go to www.press.org/news-multimedia/videos/npc-luncheon-cdc-director-dr-tom-frieden for the video of the luncheon held on May 26.