Nicaragua health experts discuss plans to counter Zika spread
Nicaraguan health experts have held talks in capital Managua to discuss strategies to contain the spread of Zika virus in the country.
The Friday meeting came as the mosquito-borne virus has been linked to brain damage in thousands of babies in Brazil, leading health officials in El Salvador and Colombia to caution women against getting pregnant for the next two years.
Nicaraguan Health Minister Sonia Castro, meanwhile, announced in a press briefing that government health authorities are monitoring the spread of the virus in the country.
“We’re going to look at what we are doing, what we’re going to strengthen,” she said. “First [we will look at] the panorama around the world; what countries are doing, in which countries it (Zika virus) has developed [and] how it is presenting.”
Castro further added, “In Nicaragua we have a clinical evolution, diagnosis, the methods of diagnosing what we have, and of course, the evaluation of what we're doing and then we will have a report with conclusions from the specialists present at this forum."
Over 6,000 suspected cases of Zika infection have been reported in El Salvador. Nicaragua’s major daily La Presna also said Friday that seven individuals have so far contracted the virus in the country.
Nicaraguan authorities have also started a fumigation campaign in a bid to contain the mosquito population that may carry the virus.
The measures were adopted after Margaret Chan, the head of the World Health Organization, warned that the spread of the Zika virus had gone from a mild threat to one of alarming proportions.
She added that the international health body would convene an emergency meeting on Monday to help determine its response.
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