Pregnant women are most widely affected with the Zika virus. In Colombia it infected around 3100 pregnant women. The virus has been related to the shocking birth defect microcephaly, which prevents fetus’ brains from developing properly. There is no vaccine or treatment. There are lots of questions and confusions about this new virus that is spreading at fast, especially among pregnant women. A British team believe that they have a remedy for the Zika virus, which they called as Oxitech’s technology.
Remedy for Zika Virus
1How we can prevent Zika virus?
Special precautions are recommended for pregnant women: Pregnant women in any trimester should postpone their travel ideas in the areas where Zika virus transmission is continuing. If they are travelling to that area, should talk to their healthcare provider first and also strictly avoid mosquito bites by wearing proper clothes during the trip.
In Brazil, soldiers are going to every door, explaining that, Aegypti can raise or breed in even the smallest pools, such as the remains in a can of Coke. The women have been advised not to get pregnant. Pump insecticide in your surroundings.
2How it was started
In November, an obstetrician in north-eastern Brazil, Adrianna Melo, confirmed that an increase in the number of children born with misshaped heads, which is known as microcephaly, was related to the Zika virus that had not been previously noticed in the mothers. The brains of these children do not build up properly, and later they face severe learning difficulties, and also have the possibility of an early death. Some Colombian pregnant women have been confirmed as having the Zika virus; thousands more do in Brazil, and across other countries in the Americas. The Caribbean is another case, have started to show up in the southern United States and Europe, here it is spreading through sexual transmission.
3Oxitech’s technology
British team say they have a remedy for the Zika to which they called as Oxitech’s technology.
Aedes Aegypti (yellow fever mosquito), is not only a carrier of dengue fever, but also the “vector (a vector is any agent (person, animal, or microorganism) that transmits an infectious bacteria into another living organism)” for Zika, a virus that are like the insect itself that is originated in Africa. Aegytpi can fly around 200 yards. The simplest way to stop Zika spreading is to remove its vector. With the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) statement, how to kill Aegypti, quickly and in huge numbers, have become crucially important.
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Oxitec is a pioneer in controlling insects that spread disease and damage crops. Oxitec’s scientists have to discover a way of including the new gene into the mosquito’s own DNA, that will be copied into every cell of the mosquito’s body. So, by using oxitech technology they may help to prevent from Zika virus. In this technology, Oxitec produces male mosquitoes with one key difference, that is they have been genetically engineered so that their children do not continue to exist into adulthood. In the cages of the Abingdon laboratory, thousands of OX513A brand Aegypti are resting on a black rag hung from each cage’s ceiling. These are the breeders, whose eggs look like fine black dust, can be collected in airtight boxes and send off to anywhere in the world, before they are enter into chemically treated water, and then turn into larvae. A simple filter removes the females, too big to fit through the holes, leaving only the valued, feebler males behind.
Know about: Zika virus: your questions answered
By: Shaveta Kandhari
