THE Palace ordered Health Secretary Janette Garin on Saturday to thoroughly study the Zika flavivirus that, like dengue, is also transmitted by the daytime-active Aedes mosquito and recently caused a pandemic in Central and South America.
“The DoH has been instructed by [President Benigno Aquino III] to study this matter and ensure public safety as much as possible,” Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Undersecretary Manuel Quezon III said over state-owned Radyo ng Bayan.
Although the Zika virus is not easily transmittable, Quezon said the Department of Health is ready to deal with the virus since it is very similar to dengue and there are safety protocols established against the spread of the virus.
The DoH, for its part, called on the public to do their “shared responsibility” in terms of preventing the chance of spreading the virus in the country.
“It’s a shared responsibility—it is our responsibility to make sure that mosquitoes do not propagate and can increase in number,” said DoH spokesperson Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy.
Lee Suy said that reducing the population of mosquitoes was an effective preparation to the possible entry of Zika virus, which is currently spreading in Latin America. “If the population of mosquitoes is low, the risk will be smaller,” he added.
He reiterated that the very same mosquitoes—Aedes mosquitoes—that carried the Zika virus in the countries where it was reported—is also present in the country and could possibly become “agents” in spreading the virus.
Efforts should be focused in controlling the spread of said mosquitoes now and always, he said.
Zika virus has not yet entered the country although in 2012, the DoH had confirmed that it had recorded one patient who was infected by Zika virus in Cebu (a 15 year-old male).
He said that the best preparations that could be done to ensure that everyone was aware that there should be no place for “Aedes mosquitoes” to breed just like what should be done against dengue and chikungunya cases spread.
Lee Suy said a clean environment is an important step to safeguard against the spread of Zika virus.
Possible sites of breeding of Aedes mosquitoes include open water storage, water drainage, and other places where water can stay for some time without being noticed.
According to World Health Organization, the Zika virus is an emerging mosquito-borne virus that was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in rhesus monkeys through a monitoring network of sylvatic yellow fever.
It was subsequently identified in humans in 1952 in Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania.
Outbreaks of Zika virus disease have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. There is no specific treatment or no vaccine currently available.
People with Zika virus disease usually have a mild fever, skin rash (exanthema) and conjunctivitis (redness of eyes). These symptoms normally last for 2-7 days.