THE pregnancies of four women are closely being monitored by health authorities here as they try to come to grips with the Zika disease and its complications.
And Dr. Merlene Fredericks, St. Lucia’s Chief Medical Officer, has stopped short of warning women to avoid pregnancies in this Zika season, instead advising them to use barrier methods during sex as sexual relations are now playing a greater role in the Zika endemic than previously thought.
The disease, said to be a mild one, by virtue of it not affecting persons the way in which Chikungunya and Dengue did in 2013 and 2014, has been described as asymptomatic in that most affected persons show no signs of having it at all.
Of worry to health personnel are the complications associated with the disease, which are microcephaly, a medical condition in which the brain does not develop properly resulting in smaller than normal heads in babies –hence the emphasis on pregnancies, and Guillain – Barre Syndrome, which is a disease that causes rapid-onset muscle weakness caused by the immune system damaging the peripheral nervous system. This can affect persons one or two weeks after they have recovered from the Zika disease.
The women are being monitored because the exact risk associated with the Zika disease is not known according to Dr. Fredericks.
She explained that while pregnant women who had contracted the Zika disease do go on and give birth to babies with microcephaly, many of them with the same condition give birth to healthy normal babies as well.
She said that both microcephaly and Guillain-Barre Syndrome can be caused by diseases other than Zika.
“Every year from 2007 we have been tracking microcephaly and Guillain-Barre syndrome diseases and every year we see a number of cases. In 2007, we saw seven cases of microcephaly, last year we saw two. In 2008 we saw six cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome whereas this year so far we have sees two. Long before Zika came along we were seeing babies being born with small heads,” Frederick said.
The country so far has recorded three cases of microcephaly for the year. Samples were taken for testing from the persons showing the conditions of microcephaly and Guillain-Barre syndrome and according to Frederick they all came back negative for Zika. This means that this year’s cases of microcephaly and Guillain-Barre syndrome were not Zika disease oriented.
“So far we think that the number of cases we are seeing is in keeping with what we have seen each year. However given that we have an outgoing Zika outbreak and that the outbreak is progressing, we will be tracking these conditions very closely and testing anyone with these conditions to see if they are related,” Frederick said.
But while the Ades egypti mosquito is still seen as the primary means by which the Zika disease is transmitted it has been found that Zika infected males carry the virus in their semen for a very long time. Frederick said that the virus can stay in the semen for a number of weeks and up to six months.
“For women of sex bearing age, if your partner is infected with Zika it would be wise to use barrier methods, such as a condom, for at least six months to prevent infection,” Fredericks said.
The Chief Medical Officer said that while scientists cannot give an exact risk of a baby being born with microcephaly from a woman with the Zika disease, there have been women with the virus who have gone on to have normal babies.
“We are encouraging persons, women and men to plan their families. Evidence from the experts is not clear cut, it does not give us the exact risk to prevent the undue distress that may occur. We are asking persons to avoid unwanted pregnancies. For persons who are sure they want to get pregnant we are advising that they take all measures necessary to prevent themselves from being bitten by the mosquito” Fredericks said.
The Zika virus entered St. Lucia earlier this year and has moved throughout the island rather swiftly as it can be found in all parts of the country.
According to Frederick this is not totally unexpected because the population never knew the disease “and so practically none of us has any immunity to the disease.”
