Local Leaders Discuss Zika Virus

Researchers and local leaders held a conference Tuesday to discuss the Zika virus, which brought together some on the front lines on the fight against the virus.

The conference was organized by the Research Triangle Institute and US Congressman David Price, who represents North Carolina’s Fourth district.

“There is just no mistaking the urgency of what we are talking about here today and the importance,” said Price.

Zika symptoms can include fever, rash and joint pain. While the virus causes mild symptoms in most people, pregnant women with the virus can give birth to babies with microcephaly, a serious birth defect that affects development.

According to the Center for Disease Control, over 600 cases in the United States have been reported, including 12 in North Carolina. All of those cases are travel related and were not acquired by mosquitoes at home.

Tuesday’s conference featured two panels, one with doctors and researchers working on different aspects of the virus. The other featured representatives from agencies working to fight Zika, like the Center for Disease Control.

Those panels explained how the scientific and logistical problems of dealing with Zika are multifaceted; especially considering the development of a Zika vaccine is still some time off.

Rep. Price said Congress hasn’t properly responded to the Zika virus.

“Of all the emergencies and potential emergencies this congress has been slow to address in recent months from the Flint water crisis to the opioid epidemic, I think the Zika case, our inability to respond in a timely, serious and sustained way, that’s the most baffling one,” said Price.

Michael Reiskind, a professor at NC State, said most transmissions of Zika occur from mosquitoes. But it can also spread through sexual contact, a way many of the cases in the US originated.

“Because most cases are going to be transmitted by mosquitoes, at least in the developing world, understanding the ecology of the mosquitoes provides an assessment of risk and also our most fruitful avenue for prevention of disease,” said Reiskind.

Reiskind said there are two kinds of mosquitoes that spread the Zika virus, one of which is prevalent in North Carolina. The mosquitoes bred in damp places, like buckets of standing water and small ponds and bite during the day.

Michael Beach from the CDC said there are measures you can take in your home to prevent the mosquitoes from breeding.

“Look for those areas that are accumulating water, tires, buckets, planters you know how we have things laying around outside the house and that sort of thing, birth baths, flower pots,” said Beach. “Anything that has water in it could potentially be used as an egg laying site.”

The current Zika outbreak originated in Brazil; where the Olympics games are going to be held this August.

Beach said the CDC is only discouraging pregnant women from going to the games.

“At this point in time 40 million travel by air through the Americas and back, so it’s not looking that we are going to be able to stop travel,” said Beach.

The virus was first discovered in the Zika forest in Uganda in the late 1940s. The current outbreak started in South America in early 2015 but the first case in the United States wasn’t reported until this year.

Local Leaders Discuss Zika Virus

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