REGIONAL Health Ministers aim to promote cooperation and develop protocols and guidelines on surveillance, risk communication, and clinical management for Zika.
The Ministers of Health of the sub-regional Latin American bloc MERCOSUR and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) issued a joint declaration pledging the improvement of their respective countries’ strategies for mosquito control.
The new strategy will target Zika and other mosquito-borne viruses such as dengue and chikungunya.
The Health Ministers requested the assistance of the Pan American Health Organization(PAHO), and the World Health organization (WHO) to support their efforts with direct technical cooperation, and to help promote cooperation and develop protocols and guidelines on surveillance, risk communication, and clinical management, via a technical team in the region.
To date, 26 countries and territories of the Americas have reported local transmission of Zika virus infection. The hemisphere’s first local cases appeared on Chile’s Easter Island in February 2014. In May 2015, Brazil reported the first locally transmitted cases on the American continent.
PAHO/WHO has collaborated with Brazilian health authorities, and mobilized its own staff and external experts through the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), to carry out technical missions to other member countries.
PAHO has also been providing countries with guidance on surveillance and clinical management of Zika cases, laboratory detection of the virus, vector control, surveillance of microcephaly and other neurological syndromes, and risk communication.
In early March, PAHO/WHO will host a meeting of research partners, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Pasteur Institute and the Oswald Cruz Foundation among others, to develop a research agenda to address the gaps in knowledge and evidence about Zika and its health effects.