The World Health Organization, WHO has backed trials of genetically modified mosquitoes and a bacteria as potentially important weapons in the fight against the Zika virus.
WHO in a statement said today that given the magnitude of the Zika crisis, it encourages affected countries and their partners to boost the use of both old and new approaches to mosquito control as the most immediate line of defence.
WHO also highlighted the potential of releasing sterile irradiated male mosquitoes.
Brazil finds Zika in microcephaly babies’ brains
Brazilian researchers have said, the discovery of Zika in the brains of babies with microcephaly adds to growing evidence of a link between the mosquito-transmitted virus and the birth defect. Lucia Noronha, a pathologist from the Brazilian Society of Pathology told a new agency the Zika virus caused brain damage and that reinforces evidence of a relationship between Zika and microcephaly.
Noronha’s team at the PUC-Parana University was the first to discover Zika in the amniotic fluid of pregnant women. It raised alarm over a link between the virus and microcephalic babies, who are born with damaged brains and abnormally small heads. Brazil is hardest hit by a huge outbreak of Zika, with some 1.5 million people infected.