March 15, 2016

Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 13, 2016. Brazilians take to the streets to demand the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and the arrest of former President Lula, who is accused of corruption. Credit: © Will Rodrigues, Shutterstock

Brazil has had a difficult year. On Sunday, March 13, more than a million Brazilians protested in the streets nationwide. Those Brazilians—most wearing the yellow color associated with the national flag and soccer team—were protesting against the nation’s president, Dilma Rousseff. Brazilians are angry with the government for a number of reasons. For two years, the nation has watched a corruption scandal unfold. The state-run oil company, Petrobras, has been caught handling bribes. In early March, a Brazilian judge sentenced Marcelo Odebrecht, the one-time head of Brazil’s largest construction company, to 19 years in prison for bribing senior executives at Petrobras. This money was then funneled through Petrobras to Brazilian politicians for campaign funds. Charges of corruption have not reached President Rousseff, but prosecutors are seeking the arrest of her predecessor and ally, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, concerning bribes that benefited his party.

Brazil has also been in an economic recession since the end of 2014. Last year, its economy contracted by almost 4 percent. Currently, Brazil’s inflation rate is over 10 percent and its unemployment rate is 9 percent. Working class Brazilians are struggling—Brazil’s economy has not been this weak since the 1930′s.

The Zika virus has also hit Brazil hard, both financially and emotionally. The outbreak of this mosquito-borne virus began in Brazil in April 2015. It had been endemic to Africa and Asia for decades, and it was thought to cause a relatively mild illness. Only when the outbreak began in Brazil did researchers begin to notice a possible correlation between Zika and microcephaly—unusually small head size in infants, which can hinder brain development. Brazil, which had reported some 200 cases of microcephaly in 2014, reported more than 4,000 cases over the last 12 months. Researchers are working to find the link between the virus and microcephaly. Doctors at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were concerned enough about the link to advise pregnant women not to travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the 2016 summer Olympics.

All of these problems have hit Brazil hard financially, and that has hindered Brazil’s preparations for the Olympic Games, which will be held in August. For example, Brazil had promised International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials that they would clean up Guanabara Bay, a large bay connected to the Atlantic Ocean that is heavily polluted with sewage and garbage. Canoeing, rowing, sailing, and swimming events will all take place in this bay or adjoining rivers. Brazil is too strapped for cash to make any real headway on an environmental cleanup of this size in the amount of time remaining before the Olympic Games.

A discarded sofa litters the shore of Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As part of its Olympic bid, Brazil promised to build eight treatment facilities to filter out much of the sewage and prevent tons of household trash from flowing into the Guanabara Bay. Only one treatment facility has been built. Tons of household trash line the coastline and form islands of refuse. Credit: © Silvia Izquierdo, AP Photo

Other Behind the headline articles

• Travelers Warned of Zika Virus (January 19, 2016)
• WHO Declares Global Zika Virus Emergency (February 3, 2016I 

(January 19, 2016)

February 3, 2016

A large number of diseases, including the Zika virus, are spread by mosquitoes. Credit: © Dmitry Knorre, Dreamstime

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared an international public health emergency in response to a frightening outbreak of Zika virus across South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. WHO reserves such emergency declarations only for extraordinary events that are “serious, unusual or unexpected.” WHO has only declared such an emergency on three other occasions. The first occurred in 2009, when a pandemic of H1N1 influenza, called “swine flu” spread across the globe. In 2014, WHO deemed the outbreak of Ebola virus in Africa and a resurgence of poliomyelitis (polio) in Syria international public health emergencies. This week’s declaration is an urgent call for action to focus international attention and resources on fighting the widespread outbreak of Zika virus that is strongly suspected of causing thousands of cases of severe birth defects in Brazil and elsewhere.

Since November 2015, Brazilian health authorities have observed a dramatic increase in babies born with microcephaly. With this condition, a child is born with a smaller-than-normal sized head, often with severely impaired brain development. Several of the babies with this condition and their mothers tested positive for exposure to the Zika virus, strongly indicating a link between the virus and the birth defect. WHO officials have since found that the Zika virus was spreading explosively through 24 countries and territories in Central and South America and the Caribbean. They believe as many as 4 million people may become infected in the months since November 2015.

The Zika virus was first discovered in the 1950’s in Africa, where it occurs naturally. It is usually spread to people through the bite of a mosquito, Aedes aegypti, common throughout tropical regions of the world. It had not been detected in South America until 2015. Symptoms of Zika virus disease include fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (eye inflammation). For adults and children, the illness is usually mild, with symptoms lasting up to a week. Severe Zika virus infections, requiring hospitalization or causing death, are uncommon. Doctors do not yet understand how the Zika virus may cause microcephaly and why this serious condition has not been associated with the virus in previous outbreaks.

The emergency declaration by WHO will facilitate a coordinated response by various international health agencies including the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This will greatly help improve methods to detect the Zika virus, implement mosquito control measures to prevent the spread of the virus, and speed work on a possible vaccine in hopes of controlling the disease. WHO officials did not recommend restrictions on travel or trade to countries where the Zika virus is detected. However, travelers to affected regions are advised to practice basic mosquito-control measures. For example, people in affected areas should limit skin exposure by wearing long sleeves and pants, and wear mosquito repellant as necessary during the day, when the mosquitoes that transmit Zika virus are known to bite. Brazil is due to host the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August 2016, which will bring a great many visitors to the country, increasing the number of people who could become infected with the Zika virus.

Other World Book articles:

• Travelers Warned of Zika Virus (Jan. 19, 2016) – A Behind the Headlines article

Mosquitoes transmit many viruses to humans, including the Zika virus. Credit: © Dmitry Knorre, Dreamstime

January 19, 2016

An outbreak of a virus has led health officials at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to issue a travel alert for people, especially pregnant women or women of child-bearing years who might get pregnant, to avoid travel to Puerto Rico and 13 countries in Latin America. The CDC recommended that pregnant women not travel to Puerto Rico and Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, and Venezuela out of fear of birth defects associated with infection by mosquito-borne Zika virus. An outbreak of the Zika virus is linked to a rash of devastating birth defects in Brazil.

Since November 2015, Brazilian health authorities have observed a dramatic increase in babies born with microcephaly, a congenital condition (a problem caused by faulty development, infection, or injury before birth). With this condition, a child is born with a smaller-than-normal sized head, often with severely impaired brain development. In Brazil, more than 3,500 births of babies with microcephaly were reported in 2015, with many deaths. This is a significant increase compared to the 147 cases of microcephaly recorded in Brazil in all of 2014. Brazilian officials believe that the frightening increase in this serious rare condition is related to a recent outbreak of Zika virus in the country. On January 15, the CDC reported that an infant born with microcephaly and her mother had both tested positive for a prior Zika infection. The mother had been in Brazil during her pregnancy. It was the first U.S. case of a birth defect linked to the virus.

Zika virus is spread to people through the bite of a mosquito, Aedes aegypti, common throughout tropical regions of the world. This mosquito is responsible for transmitting other serious diseases, including yellow fever, dengue, and chikungunya. Symptoms of Zika virus disease include fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (eye inflammation). For adults and children already born, the illness is usually mild, with symptoms lasting from several days to a week. Severe Zika virus infections, requiring hospitalization or causing death, are uncommon.

In the past, outbreaks of Zika virus infection have occurred in areas of Africa, where the virus is endemic (naturally occurring), Southeast Asia, and some Pacific Islands. However, none of these outbreaks has ever been associated with birth defects. In early 2015, the Zika virus was first found in an outbreak of illness in Brazil. The virus was later found in patients in several other countries in South America. By November, Brazilian health officials were alarmed by the dramatic increase in births of babies with microcephaly with no apparent cause. Several of the mother and babies tested positive for exposure to the Zika virus, indicating a possible link. Doctors do not yet understand how the Zika virus may cause microcephaly and why this serious condition has not been associated with the virus in previous outbreaks in other countries.

There is currently no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat Zika. The CDC says that pregnant women should consider postponing travel to these countries. Any pregnant women who must travel to one of these areas should talk to their healthcare provider first and strictly follow steps to avoid mosquito bites. People can limit the risk of Zika infection through basic mosquito-control measures. For example, people in affected areas should limit skin exposure by wearing long sleeves and pants, and wear mosquito repellant as necessary during the day, when the mosquitoes that transmit Zika virus are known to bite.

Other links

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—Zika virus
• World Health Organization