PARIS
Scientists and public health experts from more than 43 countries gathered in Paris on Monday to explore ways of combating the Zika virus, organizers said.
The two-day conference, organized by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, will examine data relating to the disease after it swept Latin America earlier this year.
The center said around 600 experts would meet to “review the Zika virus infection situation in the Americas and to review surveillance and control measures.”
They are expected to discuss Zika’s links to microcephaly, a disorder that causes severe brain damage in babies, and its links to adult neurological problems that can lead to death. The experts will also examine ways of diagnosing and vaccinating.
Addressing the summit, Marie-Paule Kieny, assistant director general at the World Health Organization (WHO), said the “possibility of local transmission, combined with the likelihood of onward sexual transmission, could see a marked increase in the number of people with Zika and related complications” in Europe.
However, Institut Pasteur President Christian Brechot said the risk was not “dramatic”. He told French broadcaster BFMTV: “The climatic conditions, local conditions and hygiene conditions in favor of the spread of the virus in Latin America are not present at all in the south of Europe.”
According to the WHO, Zika transmission has been recorded in 55 countries and territories since January 2007. A spike in cases led to the declaration of a public health emergency in February.
The WHO estimates 1.5 million people have been infected in Brazil alone.
In France, 176 cases have been confirmed in people returning from countries where the disease is present, according to the Institut Pasteur, which is hosting the conference.
Benoit Vallet, France’s director general for health, said the country was ready to face the virus as millions of football fans attend the Euro 2016 competition in the summer.
Little is known about Zika, which was first identified in 1947 in Uganda, and although the symptoms are mostly limited to a rash, fever and joint pain, there remain questions about its links to other diseases, the length of time the virus can remain in the human body and the risk of sexual transmission.
There is no treatment or vaccine for the disease and scientists are concerned the virus will spread during the summer mosquito-breeding season.
