Scientists urge WHO to treat serious epidemic virus Zika – RIA Novosti

© AP Photo / Leo Correa

MOSCOW, January 27 – RIA Novosti. The American Medical Association JAMA It issued a statement in which two professors call on WHO guidelines, “not to repeat the errors of Ebola” and immediately begin an active struggle with the epidemic fever virus Zika, sweeping South America.

“The main lesson that was learned from the history of the as WHO was struggling with Ebola in the past decade is the fact that all the measures to combat the disease must be taken swiftly and decisively. In this case, neither WHO nor countries like the United States were not prepared for an epidemic in 2014. It would be impermissible if the lack of willingness to fight the virus Zika has led to thousands of new cases of infection and the appearance of deformities in newborns, “- said Lawrence Gostin (Laurence Gostin) from the Institute of Health Law at Georgetown (USA).

Gostin and kolllega Daniel Lucy (Daniel Lucey) from Georgetown University presented in an article published in the journal JAMA, the position of the American Medical Association about the spread of the virus fever Zeke in Brazil and other Latin American countries.

According to them, , it should be taken seriously, what does today by WHO, as the spread of the fever, as shown by the mathematical model, it is hardly limited to South America and lower North America – virus Zika is likely to penetrate into the territory of Africa, Europe and Asia with the travelers, volunteers and health workers.

As the scientists write, the WHO is an urgent need to convene the Emergency Committee, which will evaluate the situation and potentially assign the situation with fever Zeke status “threat to humanity” (PHEIC), which the World Health Organization has assigned Ebola until August 2014, when the epidemic was raging in West Africa for more than half a year.

According to them, the main health organizations the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and relevant authorities in Brazil have already adopted similar decisions, while WHO continues to procrastinate and not react to a potentially more serious threat than an epidemic of Ebola.

The steps to be taken to combat the virus, should be primarily aimed at curbing its spread – in the words of the living room and Lucy it is necessary to introduce strict controls on the flow of tourists affected by the epidemic area to start a large-scale anti-mosquito Aedes aegypti, raznosyaschimi virus and speed up the work on a vaccine.

As the scientists insist that the international community should not wait for visual signals from the WHO – if the organization is to continue to delay, in which case it is your responsibility to fight the virus before it will be impossible to contain the spread.