Zika: There are no confirmed cases in Belize but there are cases all around us in Central America. In a New York Times article it states that cases have been confirmed in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala and that this virus can be linked to brain damage in unborn babies. That's very frightening and based on that link, the US Centers for Disase Control may warn pregnant women against travelling to countries where ZIKA has been detected. Today we spoke with Epidemiologist Dr. Marvin Manzanero via phone and he told us there is no cause for concern in Belize and they are working on measures to detect and test for this virus.
Dr. Marvin Manzanero - Epidemiologist, Ministry of Health
"We are aware that neighboring countries, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras has confirm cases although none of them have documented sustained transmission cases among their population. So they have been isolated cases and in most instances have been imported cases. So no country in the region we are aware of in our immediate vicinity having sustained transmission. It calls for concerned for us in 2 forms. 1) Is detecting that we have and it's just a question of when we detect the first case. It may already be here for all we know and the other cause and we are following that i9s the potential link to micro cephalic cases. Which seems to be highly associated to the Zika Virus. 
Although if you read the medical literature even the Brazilian government was the one reporting more micro cephalic cases. It seems that in some instances they haven't found that the micro cephalic cases are link to the Zika infection. So that would be a cause for concern. For the Belize context, we are looking at areas where we can do testing because the country doesn't have an in country capacity to do testing just met with the CDC regional advisor 2 days ago we did mention to her the possibility of accessing the institute laboratory in panama for potential testing of cases for us and internally for us, we are going to be looking on the lookout for any potential increases in micro cephalic cases."
Again, we stress that no ban or travel restrictions have been put in place for pregnant women and there have been no confirmed cases of Zika in Belize. Health officials say they will keep on monitoring this situation in our neighboring countries and in Belize. Manzanero told us that the signs and symptoms of the Zika virus are similar to Dengue and Chikungunya so they would test for those first and if those tests are negative then they would have to send those samples abroad to test for Zika.
Email
Print