WHO clears CARICOM Member States of Virus

Oct 19, 2018 News

The Caribbean Region has one less public health challenge to deal with. This is in light of the World Health Organisation [WHO] decision to clear Member States of the Caribbean Community [CARICOM] of the Zika virus.
This development has been linked to the inactivity of the virus. Moreover, WHO was forced to revise the Zika virus country classification scheme for the Caribbean Region. The scheme is one that categorized most of the Caribbean territories as having active Zika virus transmission.
WHO’s decision comes on the heels of data released by the Caribbean Public Health Agency [CARPHA] which suggest that the transmission of the virus in the Caribbean had been interrupted for over 12 months or was at undetectable levels.
This by extension meant that any trace of the virus posed very little risks to residents and visitors to the Region.
The CARPHA data was substantiated by information coming from Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States which showed that no Zika virus had been detected for over one year in travellers returning from the Caribbean to those countries.
Moreover, the evidence of the inactive Zika virus was used by CARICOM to pen a letter to the WHO Director General calling for the immediate reclassification of CARPHA Member States from Category One [having active Zika virus transmission] to Category three [having no virus transmission]. Detailed in the letter was the argument that the classification system had outlived its useful purpose.
CARPHA’s Executive Director, Dr. C. James Hospedales, explained that the virus classification was not only having an adverse impact on the Caribbean, but it was also against the tenets of the International Health Regulations [IHR].
This adverse impact was confirmed by the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association [CHTA] and the Caribbean Tourism Organization [CTO], which together made a formal request to CARPHA for the Agency’s intervention.
Dr. Hospedales stated, “The Caribbean is the most tourism-dependent region in the world. It is also one of the most popular honeymoon destinations worldwide and ongoing cancellations due to the classification of most Caribbean countries as Category One is hurting the industry unnecessarily. Therefore, CARPHA felt compelled to provide the evidence and to advocate for the removal of this WHO classification system.”
Today, the efforts of CARPHA, its Member States, CARICOM, and other regional and international agencies have yielded fruit as the WHO virus country classification scheme is no longer active.
CARPHA was legally established in July 2011 by an inter-governmental agreement signed by CARICOM Member States and began operation in January 2013.
As a result, the CARPHA laboratory serves as the Region’s reference laboratory for its Member States. As the sole regional public health agency CARPHA has pledged to continue to work with its Member States to ensure that the Caribbean is capable of preventing, detecting and responding to public health threats affecting the Region. One of its strategic priorities is to strengthen the health systems of Member States through improved human resource development.
Indeed CARPHA had offered training to Member States to combat the Zika virus and other mosquito borne diseases.
According WHO, the Zika Virus is a disease caused by a virus transmitted primarily by Aedes type mosquitoes. People with the virus, WHO noted, can have symptoms lasting up to two to seven days including: mild fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise or headache. There have however been reports that the symptoms of Zika, which primarily spreads when a mosquito infected with Zika bites someone, were farther reaching.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention had reported that while many people infected with Zika won’t have symptoms or will only have mild symptoms, a pregnant woman on the other hand, even without symptoms, can pass Zika to her developing fetus.
CDC had reported too that Zika infection during pregnancy can cause serious birth defects. Among the birth defects that CDC has associated with the Zika virus is microcephaly. Microcephaly is where the fetus is exposed to certain viruses, toxins or even drugs or alcohol during pregnancy resulting in under development of the brain tissues thereby causing an abnormally small head.
Having been faced with the threat of Zika virus, Guyana recorded over a dozen cases of microcephaly suspected to be related to the virus.

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