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The Price of Zika? About $4 Million Per Child
TO TALK ABOUT Zika virus control is to talk about money. Vaccine development, mosquito abatement, and even the distribution of DEET repellant takes (and currently lacks) major federal dollars. When, last week, the US Department of Health and Human Services declared Zika a public health emergency in Puerto Rico, it was in part a means to a better-funded end.
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Scientists have put a $2 Zika test into a portable, can-sized container
Over 400,000 people are suspected to have contracted Zika in North and South America as of the end of June, but only 56,000 infections have been confirmed, mainly because it’s too expensive and cumbersome to administer lab tests. A team of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania has developed a new saliva test that can deliver a Zika diagnosis in under an hour far from labs or medical facilities.
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Behind the World’s Top Drugmakers’ Approach to Zika Vaccine
What if a drugmaker spent billions of dollars to create a vaccine -- only to find out humans developed natural resistance to the disease before its product is ready?
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The Planet’s Health Is Essential to Prevent Infectious Disease
The Zika virus, now detected in 42 countries, is only the latest in a series of diseases establishing a new normal for pandemics. Sars ravaged South China in 2003, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (Mers) shocked the Middle East in 2012, and Ebola devastated west Africa in 2014. We have seen avian influenza emerge in new geographies alongside mosquito-borne viruses, such as Chikungunya. Over the past 50 years, more than 300 infectious pathogens have either newly developed or reemerged in places where they had never been seen before.
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In Brazil, a New Zika Strategy: Billboards That Smell Like Humans and Kill Mosquitoes
There’s an impressive array of creative billboards in Brazil. One in Rio de Janeiro sprays mists of water to cool down beachgoers waiting for a bus home. But a new innovation recently unveiled in this city is plain lethal — at least for bugs.
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Opinion: Why … Rio de Janeiro’s 2016 Olympic Games Must Not Proceed
Zika infection is more dangerous, and Brazil’s outbreak more extensive, than scientists reckoned a short time ago. Which leads to a bitter truth: the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games must be postponed, moved, or both, as a precautionary concession.
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How an Obscure Disease Became a Global Health Emergency
In early February 2015, doctors in the impoverished northeastern part of Brazil noticed a surge in the number of people complaining about a mild illness, with and without fever, characterized by rash, fatigue, joint pains, and red eyes. The illness was brief and recovery was spontaneous. A mild form of dengue, a mosquito-borne disease hyperendemic throughout the country, was initially suspected, but tests were negative in the vast majority of samples. Chikungunya, another mosquito-borne disease first detected in Africa in 1952, had hopped to Brazil in September 2014 and was likewise suspected. Again, tests results were negative.
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Brazilian Doctor Crafts System Hailed As ‘Way Forward’ for Combating Zika
In Brazil, one of the biggest challenges to dealing with the Zika crisis is logistics.
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