Latin American health ministers agreed Wednesday on a public information campaign and boosted the number of medical workers to fight the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which poses the greatest threat to pregnant women.
The 14 officials — including Brazilian Health Minister Marcelo Castro, whose country has been hit hardest by the virus — held emergency talks Wednesday in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Castro said regional leaders need to “exchange information, make alliances, and discuss what coordinated action we can take to control this epidemic.”
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has said her government will spare no expense in fighting the mosquito that experts say carries the virus.
“My entire government is working on fighting this emergency,” Rousseff said this week. “There will be no lack of funding. … We will partner up with the U.S. government, with President [Barack] Obama … in order to develop as quickly as possible a vaccine for the Zika virus.”
A worrisome development intensified concerns this week when health officials in Dallas County, Texas, reported what appears to be the first Zika case in the U.S. transmitted through sexual contact.
The patient apparently was infected after having sex with an ill individual who returned from a country where the virus is present. It was later reported on Twitter that the infected traveler had recently been to Venezuela.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the top federal public health agency — confirmed the Texas case.
Source-VOA
