Medical officer of health Dr. Richard Schabas (centre) gives members of the Hastings Prince Edward Public Health board an update on the regional response to the Zika-virus outbreak during a meeting Wednesday. Photo by Brendan Burke, QNet News
By Brendan Burke [1]
BELLEVILLE – The likelihood of the Quinte region seeing a Zika [2] virus outbreak is very low, but the risk of exposure for travellers visiting infected areas remains a concern, according to the area’s chief public-health official.
During the monthly meeting of the Hastings Prince Edward Public Health board [3] Wednesday, Dr. Richard Schabas told board members [4] that while the emerging virus is still a concern, so too is the lack of new data about the disease.
“I’m kind of puzzled as to why the well of new information has dried up so quickly,” he said, addressing community members and local health officials.
The Zika virus – a vector-borne [5] disease transmitted to humans through the bite of pathogen-carrying Aedes [6] mosquitoes – was first identified in 1947, but the largest outbreaks occurred in 2013 and 2015, with a rash of cases documented in French Polynesia [7] and Brazil respectively. The fallout from last year’s outbreak – the biggest yet, with 1.5 million cases reported in Brazil alone as of this February – continues to be felt internationally.
Zika’s resurgence, marked by its spread from Brazil to other countries, has left health officials in South and Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean grappling with the virus’s effects, particularly on pregnant women and babies. The disease has been linked to birth defects, including microcephaly [8]. The World Health Organization [9] has also acknowledged a probable link between Zika and neurological diseases like Guillain-Barré Syndrome [10].
Schabas said that while Canadians face little risk of infection here at home, travel to Zika-affected countries still poses a threat, especially for pregnant women. Photo by Brendan Burke, QNet News
A vaccine has yet to be developed, and according to Schabas, few new details and statistics are available.
Schabas said the scarcity of new findings leaves agencies like Hastings Prince Edward Public Health with little means to update the public, although there is good information available on precautions that travellers and reproductive-age women can take. While the local health unit doesn’t offer specific advice, Schabas cited guidelines set by the Public Health Agency of Canada [11] as a standard.
The government agency advises women who are pregnant or trying to become pregnant to avoid Zika-infected areas [12], while a two-month waiting period is stressed for women returning from affected countries before becoming pregnant. Returning men with female partners trying to become pregnant should use protection during sex for six months, according to the federal agency.
In an interview with QNet News, Schabas reiterated that the virus poses a minimal threat to area residents due to the absence of its carrier, or vector – the Aedes species of mosquito – within Canadian borders.
“Zika is not a vector-borne disease in Canada because we don’t have the vector,” he said. “We don’t have Aedes.”
According to Schabas, that eliminates the risk of homegrown exposure and places the focus on vulnerable travellers instead.
“Our concern in Canada is people who get infected when they go to infected areas like South America and the Caribbean,” he said.
Public-health inspector Aptie Sookoo emphasized that all reported cases of Zika in Canada have been”imported” through travel. Photo by Brendan Burke, QNet News
Aptie Sookoo, an inspector at the health agency who presented findings about another disease-carrier, ticks, at the meeting, echoed the importance of prevention through vigilance when travelling. The fact that there have been a few cases of Zika in Canada does not equate to increased risk for citizens, he stressed.
“The reported (Canadian) cases are all imported” by travellers, he said. “They are not local occurrences.”
Of the 20 Canadians who have tested positive, all contracted the virus after travelling to countries with outbreaks. There are no known occurrences of individuals being infected within Canada.
Last year’s wave of international Zika cases, and the ensuing headlines, prompted widespread unease among travellers and pregnant women. But Schabas noted that since then, there has been a drop in attention to the crisis.
“There’s not been any new information really to feed the media coverage,” he said, adding that he had anticipated new data to be released so that research could be done and numbers could be crunched.
“I’m sort of scratching my head as to why we’ve not seen new and better information. I would have expected the science to be a lot stronger by now. I’m not quite sure why it isn’t.”
Since 2015’s outbreak, only one Zika case has been confirmed in Ontario, according to the province’s Ministry of Health and Long Term Care [13],