WHO | Update on Zika Virus. Read Article to Know How to Protect Yourself

Mosquitoes infect humans and people can infect each other through sexual transmission. Zika has been detected in blood, saliva, semen, spinal and other body fluids. Mother to child transmission in early pregnancy has also been reported. Aedes bites mostly during the day.

Symptoms:

Sympoms are usually mild and can include mild fever, skin rash, inflammation of the eyes (conjunctivitis), muscle and joint pain, malaise or headache. Symptoms normally last for 2 - 7 days. Zika infection during pregnancy causes microcephaly, babies born with small heads, and other fetal brain malformations. Zika is also a cause of Guillain-Barré Syndrome - a neurological condition that can lead to paralysis and death.

Protect your health:

The best form of prevention is protection against mosquito bites. Personal protection with repellents, clothing that covers exposed skin and use of nets when resting during the day; window screens and destruction of breeding sites are recommended. There is no specific treatment or vaccine currently available.

To reduce the risk of sexual transmission and potential pregnancy complications related to Zika virus infection people living in/travelling to/or returning from affected areas should practice safer sex, including wearing condoms.

Areas at risk: Outbreaks of Zika virus disease have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. Female Aedes aegypti, and Aedes albopictus are found in over 130 countries. There has been a steep rise in local Zika transmission in the Americas; since 2015, 62 countries and territories reported mosquito transmitted Zika virus. WHO announced a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 1 February 2016.

WHO Updates on Mosquito-borne diseases

Mosquitoes are one of the deadliest animals in the world. Their ability to carry and spread disease to humans causes millions of deaths every year. In 2015 malaria alone caused 438 000 deaths. The worldwide incidence of dengue has risen 30-fold in the past 30 years, and more countries are reporting their first outbreaks of the disease. Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever are all transmitted to humans by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. More than half of the world’s population live in areas where this mosquito species is present. Sustained mosquito control efforts are important to prevent outbreaks from these diseases. There are several different types of mosquitoes and some have the ability to carry many different diseases. Click below to see which diseases are transmitted by the Aedes, Culex, and Anopheles mosquitoes.

Key facts

Vector-borne diseases account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases, causing more than 1 million deaths annually.
More than 2.5 billion people in over 100 countries are at risk of contracting dengue alone.
Malaria causes more than 400 000 deaths every year globally, most of them children under 5 years of age.
Other diseases such as Chagas disease, leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide.
Many of these diseases are preventable through informed protective measures.
Main vectors and diseases they transmit

Vectors are living organisms that can transmit infectious diseases between humans or from animals to humans. Many of these vectors are bloodsucking insects, which ingest disease-producing microorganisms during a blood meal from an infected host (human or animal) and later inject it into a new host during their subsequent blood meal.

Mosquitoes are the best known disease vector. Others include ticks, flies, sandflies, fleas, triatomine bugs and some freshwater aquatic snails.

Mosquitoes
Aedes
Chikungunya
Dengue fever
Rift Valley fever
Yellow fever
Zika
Anopheles
Malaria
Culex
Japanese encephalitis
Lymphatic filariasis
West Nile fever
Sandflies
Leishmaniasis
Sandfly fever (phelebotomus fever)
Ticks
Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever
Lyme disease
Relapsing fever (borreliosis)
Rickettsial diseases (spotted fever and Q fever)
Tick-borne encephalitis
Tularaemia
Triatomine bugs
Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis)
Tsetse flies
Sleeping sickness (African trypanosomiasis)
Fleas
Plague (transmitted by fleas from rats to humans)
Rickettsiosis
Black flies
Onchocerciasis (river blindness)
Aquatic snails
Schistosomiasis (bilharziasis)
Vector-borne diseases

Vector-borne diseases are illnesses caused by pathogens and parasites in human populations. Every year there are more than 1 billion cases and over 1 million deaths from vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue, schistosomiasis, human African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, yellow fever, Japanese encephalitis and onchocerciasis, globally.

Vector-borne diseases account for over 17% of all infectious diseases.

Distribution of these diseases is determined by a complex dynamic of environmental and social factors.

Globalization of travel and trade, unplanned urbanization and environmental challenges such as climate change are having a significant impact on disease transmission in recent years. Some diseases, such as dengue, chikungunya and West Nile virus, are emerging in countries where they were previously unknown.

Changes in agricultural practices due to variation in temperature and rainfall can affect the transmission of vector-borne diseases. Climate information can be used to monitor and predict distribution and longer-term trends in malaria and other climate-sensitive diseases.

WHO response

WHO responds to vector-borne diseases by:

providing the best evidence for controlling vectors and protecting people against infection;
providing technical support and guidance to countries so that they can effectively manage cases and outbreaks;
supporting countries to improve their reporting systems and capture the true burden of the disease;
providing training on clinical management, diagnosis and vector control with some of its collaborating centres throughout the world; and
developing new tools to combat the vectors and deal with the disease, for example insecticide products and spraying technologies.
A crucial element in vector-borne diseases is behavioural change. WHO works with partners to provide education and improve awareness so that people know how to protect themselves and their communities from mosquitoes, ticks, bugs, flies and other vectors.

For many diseases such as Chagas disease, malaria, schistosomiasis and leishmaniasis, WHO has initiated control programmes using donated or subsidized medicines.

Access to water and sanitation is a very important factor in disease control and elimination. WHO works together with many different government sectors to control these diseases.

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WHO | Malaria control improves for vulnerable in Africa, but global progress off-track

GENEVA - WHO’s World Malaria Report 2016 reveals that children and pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa have greater access to effective malaria control. Across the region, a steep increase in diagnostic testing for children and preventive treatment for pregnant women has been reported over the last 5 years. Among all populations at risk of malaria, the use of insecticide-treated nets has expanded rapidly.

But in many countries in the region, substantial gaps in programme coverage remain. Funding shortfalls and fragile health systems are undermining overall progress, jeopardizing the attainment of global targets.

Scale-up in malaria control

Sub-Saharan Africa carries a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden. In 2015, the region was home to 90% of malaria cases and 92% of malaria deaths. Children under five years of age are particularly vulnerable, accounting for an estimated 70% of all malaria deaths.

Diagnostic testing enables health providers to rapidly detect malaria and prescribe life-saving treatment. New findings presented in the report show that, in 2015, approximately half (51%) of children with a fever seeking care at a public health facility in 22 African countries received a diagnostic test for malaria, compared to 29% in 2010.

To protect women in areas of moderate and high malaria transmission in Africa, WHO recommends "intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy" (IPTp) with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine. The treatment, administered at each scheduled antenatal care visit after the first trimester, can prevent maternal and infant mortality, anaemia, and the other adverse effects of malaria in pregnancy.

According to available data, there was a five-fold increase in the percentage of women receiving the recommended 3 or more doses of this preventive treatment in 20 African countries. Coverage reached 31% in 2015, up from 6% in 2010.

Insecticide-treated nets are the cornerstone of malaria prevention efforts in Africa. The report found that more than half (53%) of the population at risk in sub-Saharan Africa slept under a treated net in 2015, compared to 30% in 2010.

Last month, WHO released the findings of a major 5-year evaluation in 5 countries. The study showed that people who slept under long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) had significantly lower rates of malaria infection than those who did not use a net, even though mosquitoes showed resistance to pyrethroids (the only insecticide class used in LLINs) in all of these areas.

An unfinished agenda

Malaria remains an acute public health problem, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the report, there were 212 million new cases of malaria and 429 000 deaths worldwide in 2015.

There are still substantial gaps in the coverage of core malaria control tools. In 2015, an estimated 43% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa was not protected by treated nets or indoor spraying with insecticides, the primary methods of malaria vector control.

In many countries, health systems are under-resourced and poorly accessible to those most at risk of malaria. In 2015, a large proportion (36%) of children with a fever were not taken to a health facility for care in 23 African countries.

"We are definitely seeing progress," notes Dr Pedro Alonso, Director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme. "But the world is still struggling to achieve the high levels of programme coverage that are needed to beat this disease."

Global targets

At the 2015 World Health Assembly, Member States adopted the Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016-2030. The Strategy set ambitious targets for 2030 with milestones every 5 years to track progress.

Eliminating malaria in at least 10 countries is a milestone for 2020. The report shows that prospects for reaching this target are bright: In 2015, 10 countries and territories reported fewer than 150 indigenous cases of malaria, and a further 9 countries reported between 150 and 1000 cases.

Countries that have achieved at least 3 consecutive years of zero indigenous cases of malaria are eligible to apply for the WHO certification of malaria elimination. In recent months, the WHO Director-General certified that Kyrgyzstan and Sri Lanka had eliminated malaria.

But progress towards other key targets must be accelerated. The Strategy calls for a 40% reduction in malaria case incidence by the year 2020, compared to a 2015 baseline. According to the report, less than half (40) of the 91 countries and territories with malaria are on track to achieve this milestone. Progress has been particularly slow in countries with a high malaria burden.

An urgent need for more funding

Sustained and sufficient funding for malaria control is a serious challenge. Despite a steep increase in global investment for malaria between 2000 and 2010, funding has since flat-lined. In 2015, malaria funding totalled US$ 2.9 billion, representing only 45% of the funding milestone for 2020 (US$ 6.4 billion).

Governments of malaria-endemic countries provided about 31% of total malaria funding in 2015. The United States of America is the largest international malaria funder, accounting for about 35% of total funding in 2015, followed by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (16%).

If global targets are to be met, funding from both domestic and international sources must increase substantially.

Note to editors

RTS,S/AS01 malaria vaccine
Last month, WHO announced that the world’s first malaria vaccine would be rolled out through pilot projects in 3 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Vaccinations will begin 2018. The vaccine, known as RTS,S, acts against P. falciparum, the most deadly malaria parasite globally, and the most prevalent in Africa. Advanced clinical trials have shown RTS,S to provide partial protection against malaria in young children.

More about the RTS,S vaccine
WHO multi-country evaluation on LLINs
On 16 November 2016, WHO released the findings of a 5-year evaluation conducted in 340 locations across 5 countries: Benin, Cameroon, India, Kenya and Sudan. The findings of this study reaffirm the WHO recommendation of universal LLIN coverage for all populations at risk of malaria.

More on the evaluation of LLINs
For more information, please contact:

Saira Stewart
Technical officer, WHO
Mobile: +41 79 500 6538
Email: stewarts@who.int

Gregory HÄRTL
Coordinator, News, Social Media and Monitoring
Telephone: +41 22 791 4458
Mobile: +41 79 203 6715
Email: hartlg@who.int

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