Zika: A cause of concern for Bangladesh?

It took two months for the pandemic H1N1 virus, now commonly known as swine flu, to travel from Mexico to Bangladesh in June 2009.

Anxious people had been seen rushing to hospitals for check-ups. At least eight people died among an estimated 10,000 cases.
 
With that experience in mind, Bangladeshis now fear the arrival of the Zika virus that has been causing massive concern in America.
 
The WHO says it is “now spreading explosively” and estimates between 3 million to 4 million infections in the region over a 12-month period.
 
Some suggest the outbreak in Latin America could be a bigger threat to global health than the Ebola epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people in Africa.
 
The UN agency will sit in an emergency meeting on Monday to decide whether it should be considered a “global health crisis” or not.
 
Bangladeshis have reasons to be concerned as the vector, Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which carries the virus, is very much present in the country.
 
It causes dengue in Bangladesh.
 
“We have the vector (for Zika). But we don’t have the virus,” Director of the government’s disease monitoring arm IEDCR Prof Mahmudur Rahman, who sits on several WHO expert committees, told bdnews24.com.
 
“We are alert as we always remain.”
 
But there are issues to ponder.
 
The flu virus can easily pass from person to person through respiratory droplets.
 
But Zika does not spread from person to person. The female aedes mosquito, that feeds itself during the day, transmits the virus.
 
“We don’t have frequent travel to and from the affected American countries,” said Prof Rahman.
 
“Even then Zika can come as a virus is always unpredictable. But it’ll take time.”
 
The IEDCR director, however, advised to take utmost caution as there was no vaccine or medicine for Zika.
 
Prevention of mosquito bite and control of breeding ground were the key measures.
 
The virus causes fever, rash and red eyes. About 80 percent of the people even do not know they have it. The symptom appears in one out of five infected persons.
 
In South America, panic runs high due to the connection of the Zika virus with Microcephaly, in which a baby is born with a small head and brain.
 
The affected American countries have advised women to delay their pregnancies. The US has advised pregnant women not to travel to the affected countries.
 
“The level of concern is high, as is the level of uncertainty,” WHO chief Margaret Chan recently told her organisation's executive board members.
 
“We need to get some answers quickly."