Bangladesh to look for Zika virus presence in old blood samples

The government has decided to test old blood samples stored at the national disease monitoring agency, IEDCR, again to exclude the presence of Zika virus in Bangladesh.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 4 Feb 2016, 05:54 PM
Updated : 4 Feb 2016, 06:11 PM

The ‘technical committee’ meeting on Thursday also decided to strengthen the airport screening to catch the virus from getting in, Prof AKM Shamsuzzaman, Line Director of the Centre for Disease Control, told bdnews24.com.
 
He said the IEDCR blood samples had earlier tested negative for dengue and chikungunya, the two prevalent diseases in Bangladesh, caused by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito.
 
As this same mosquito is causing Zika virus disease now and the WHO has declared it an international public health emergency, the meeting decided to test those negative samples again for Zika virus.
 
“We have testing facilities for Zika,” Prof Shamsuzzaman said. 
 
The meeting discussed all aspects of Zika virus prevention. “We have also put a special emphasis on mosquito control,” he said. They have sought support from the city corporations.
 
The WHO has urged countries to “strengthen surveillance and take preventive measures” against the disease which is linked to thousands of suspected cases of birth defects, babies born with small head and brain, in Brazil.
 
It later spread rapidly.
 
The Zika virus was first discovered in Uganda in 1947. The most common symptoms are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis.
 
The illness is usually mild with the symptoms lasting a week. In 80 percent of the cases, symptoms do not appear. There is no vaccine for the disease.
 
The disease also does not spread person to person through respiratory droplets. Bangladesh does not have the virus.
 
“But we have to remain alert,” the CDC line director said.
 
“Since we have the presence of the vector mosquito, any person arriving with the disease can cause internal transmission of the virus.”
 
Prof Shamsuzzaman said they were also planning to test blood samples at the airports as part of their strengthened screening measures.
 
This vector control would mostly depend on the individual houses, as the Aedes mosquito breeds in fresh water inside the houses and adjacent areas.
 
Brazil has passed a law allowing the mosquito control authorities to enter the private houses and spray insecticides, if needed.