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| This admission of the WHO’s mismanagement of the Zika virus will come as further embarrassment for the organization after their mishandling of the Ebola outbreak, which killed more than 10,000 people in West Africa.© Daniel Becerril / Reuters |
The World Health
Organization (WHO) has made a startling admission saying it is partly
responsible for the outbreak of the Zika virus. The agency said the
failures to prevent its spread had created a “significant threat to global
health.”
RT
News report continues:
The
UN agency admitted its failure to introduce mosquito control policies over the
last few decades has led to the current Zika virus problem.
"The
spread of Zika... (is) the price being paid for a massive policy failure that
dropped the ball on mosquito control in the 1970s," the head of WHO
Margaret Chan said at the world health body’s annual assembly, as cited by
AFP.
The
Zika virus, which is present in 60 countries, has led to a marked increase in
the number of births with a microcephaly defect, which is when babies are born
with abnormally small heads and brains. It can also cause the rare but serious
neurological disorder Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
People
are normally infected by mosquito bites, but there is also evidence that the
virus can pass as a result of sexual contact. Latin America and the Caribbean
have been hit hardest by the Zika outbreak and as Chan points out this region
has “the highest proportion of unintended pregnancies anywhere in the
world."
"Zika
shows an extreme consequence of the failure to provide universal access to
sexual and family planning services," she mentioned, according to
AFP.
Brazil
has been the hardest hit country, with more than 1.5 million people infected,
while there have been around 1,400 cases of microcephaly in infant
children.
"With
no vaccines and no reliable and widely available diagnostic tests, to protect
women of childbearing age, all we can offer is advice," Chan said.
"Avoid
mosquito bites, delay pregnancy, do not travel to areas with ongoing
transmission."
However,
Rio de Janeiro is set to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors in just a
few months’ time when the city hosts the 2016 Olympics.
The
organizers have already announced a number of measures to shield the public
from the virus. Organizers are offering more than 450,000 free condoms to athletes
at the Rio village. The free condom dispensing machines will be available to
athletes to include roughly 300,000 male condoms and 100,000 female condoms in
addition to 175,000 sachets of lubricants.
On
May 15, the Mayor of Rio again tried to reassure the general public that the
Zika virus will not pose a threat to the games.
“There’s
not many cases of the Zika virus, especially in the city of Rio. There is the
issue with pregnant women and this is something we need to take care of, but I
don't know anyone who's got the Zika virus and I know a lot of people so this
is not a big issue,” Eduardo Paes told Sky News.
“You’ve
got to come and enjoy,” he said. “It is an amazing city, an amazing place.
People are completely safe here.”
This
admission of the WHO’s mismanagement of the Zika virus will come as further
embarrassment for the organization after their mishandling of the Ebola
outbreak, which killed more than 10,000 people in West Africa.
The
agency delayed declaring it an epidemic for two months because of fears it
could have had on local economies, while it also could have interfered with the
Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
It
took the World Health Organization (WHO) until August 7, 2014, to finally call
the outbreak a public health emergency. By August 4, 2014, the death toll from
the disease was already approaching 1,000, while the WHO stated on their
website at the time: “This is currently the largest EVD outbreak ever
recorded.”
Michael Osterholm, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Minnesota, said, "That's like saying you don't want to call the fire department because you're afraid the fire trucks will create a disturbance in the neighborhood."
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