Zika Virus Outbreak: Top Questions From ABC News' Facebook Chat
ABC News' Dr. Richard Besser answers questions on the Zika virus outbreak.
— -- With growing concerns about the Zika virus outbreak, ABC News' Chief Health and Medical Editor Dr. Richard Besser took questions during a Facebook chat earlier today alongside Dr. Antonio Raimundo de Almeida, director of the Roberto Santos General Hospital in Salvador, Brazil.
Here are some of the top question and answers, and see the rest of the chat here.
Q: Given that it’s important to keep mosquitoes away, what kind of bug repellent would you recommend?
Besser: Personally, here in Brazil, I’ve been using a lot of repellent with DEET. The CDC has a number of recommendations -- all of their recommendations are approved by the EPA as safe for people. In addition to DEET, there are products containing picaridin, IR3535 and oil of lemon eucalyptus. DEET is safe, even in pregnant women.
Almeida: The brand names are different here in Brazil, but ingredients are the same.
Besser: When it comes to using a mosquito repellent, you want to use a concentration proportional to how much time you’ll spend outside. The CDC says above 50% DEET, you get no added value. If you’re only going to be outside for an hour, 10% is fine. If you’ll be outside for longer, 30-50% could give you more protection. Think about how long you’re going to be in a spot where you could be bitten by mosquitoes, and choose your repellent accordingly.
Q: I have a trip planned to Mexico. I’m not pregnant, but I want to be pregnant in the next two years. Am I at risk?
Besser: For a lot of the science around Zika virus, the studies haven’t been done, so lessons are being taken from other viruses that are similar -- this class of virus is called flavivirus. Once someone recovers from flavivirus infections, they can no longer find the virus in the body. The feeling is that there should not be long-term risk to a woman who gets a Zika virus infection unless it’s during the period that she’s pregnant.
Q: It's winter here and not mosquito season. Why should we get concerned now?
Besser: It's really all about preparedness and thinking ahead for what steps should be taken. What should be in place to reduce the number of people who get infected. There are many people from the United States who travel around the world, who travel to areas that are experiencing Zika and will come home. Some of them may be infected. Thankfully, mosquitoes aren't active right now, but when they are active what should we be doing?
The CDC recommends anyone who returns, who has symptoms of Zika -- fever, rash, red eyes, joint pain -- see their doctor to be tested. They can be told to use repellent. But remember that 80 percent of people who have this may have no symptoms at all. We need to focus on what to do about mosquitoes in a big way. Think about in your home -- are your screens repaired? Get them repaired before it's mosquito season. Is there any free-standing water around your house? You want to get rid of that before mosquitoes are very active.
The steps you take to reduce the chance of Zika will also reduce the chance of West Nile virus, which is seen all over the U.S.
Almeida: The word is preparedness, you have to be prepared. You already have some dengue cases in Florida and the dengue is close to the Zika virus.
Q: How do we identify this particular mosquito?
Besser: That's a good question. I'm not a mosquito expert. It's a banded mosquito. It seems to have little lines.
Almeida: It's a zebra.
Besser: Yes, it's like a zebra with stripes on it, but I wouldn't interrogate the mosquito too closely. I would do what I could to avoid getting bit by the mosquito. The CDC has really good maps, understanding where they transmit and understanding parts of the country are affected by the mosquitoes is very helpful.
Almeida: They have been here for 200 years. They came here from Africa -- 200 years in Brazil.
Besser: The tragic thing, this is something we see in public health all the time. There was a time this mosquito was almost eliminated from the Americas. There was a big effort and it was because of Yellow Fever. There was a big effort to wipe out the Aedes aegypti.
Governments across the entire Western Hemisphere invested a lot of money in spraying and getting rid of free-standing water. All of these kinds of steps. They were very close. There were 16 countries that was declared free of mosquitoes.
What happens when diseases start appearing less and less, there is less money to continue the efforts, so the mosquito came back. It's in every country in the Western Hemisphere except for Canada and Chile.
Q: There's no scientific link between microcephaly and Zika. Why are pregnant women being told to avoid areas with the Zika virus like there's scientific proof of a link?
Besser: When it comes to scientific proof, there are different levels of proof. There are very strong signals that there is a connection between Zika virus infection and microcephaly, the condition of very small heads and damaged brains. The rise of microcephaly came soon after the rise of the number of cases of the Zika virus. Scientists have been able to recover the Zika virus from babies who died who had microcephaly, from those brains and tissues.
That is some of the evidence that there is a connection. There are additional studies going on to prove it. You would hate to be in a situation where the world community decided "We're going to wait. We're going to wait until every paper has been published. We’re going to wait until there's 100 percent scientific proof." There are so many reasons we don't want to spread disease with this specific mosquito if everyone turns out to be wrong. If it leads to a drop in Dengue fever and Chikungunya, that will be a very good thing. It will be bad that pregnant women were scared. But health experts around the world and here in Brazil are very worried.
Almeida: We have to prove that it's caused by Zika, but the probability is very, very high. We have heard the Zika virus is in amniotic fluid and some tissues. We are confirming this again and again.
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