EXCLUSIVE – The Institut Pasteur de Lille has set up an online platform to assess the risks of Zika virus contamination and provide information on the procedure to follow after a trip.
The Institut Pasteur de Lille has put online a new tool to inform the French about the Zika virus and the risks to which they are exposed. This platform, available at www.pasteur-lille.fr/zika/, primarily targets women of childbearing age, due to the risk of microcephaly which threatens the fetuses. But, more generally, it is aimed at all people returning from a country at risk and wondering about their exposure to the virus.
“The first problem concerns the women who live there, in endemic areas,” explains Daniel Camus, parasitologist, at the head of a working group on Zika at the High Council for Public Health. French women who go to one of these areas must also be the subject of special attention and increased information. But there is a third problem that must be answered: people returning from a country affected by the virus ”.
Practical recommendations
It is thus, through this tool, to evaluate the risk of infection according to the last trips made by a person. A drop-down menu allows you to select one of the risk areas (currently around thirty, with a variable degree of risk). The user then enters several data (travel dates, sex, pregnancy, symptoms, etc.) which make it possible to determine the presence of a risk of infection.
Once this risk has been assessed, the platform provides several very practical recommendations to guide people in their efforts. A woman who allegedly traveled to Brazil last month while pregnant must, for example, see a doctor for a serological test for anti-Zika antibodies, as well as an ultrasound – even if she has no symptoms.
Protected sex for a month
While the health authorities in Texas, in the United States, have just announced the discovery of a case of sexual transmission of the Zika virus, researchers at the Institut Pasteur have taken the lead. “We had mentioned this risk last July in our report,” says Daniel Camus.
Suddenly, the recommendations of the Institut Pasteur de Lille have integrated this risk of sexual transmission, even if it remains very poorly documented to date. Men who have been to an endemic area are advised not to have unprotected sex for a month, so as not to risk infecting their partner. Women must “” avoid any unprotected sex with a man who has returned less than a month from an epidemic zone “. The British, Americans and Irish should also adopt these recommendations.
Finally, the platform offers a guide for people who plan to travel to one of the areas affected by the epidemic. “All these data are based on the current knowledge at our disposal,” explains Daniel Camus. They will be updated as much as possible ”.
On Tuesday, Ireland reported on the first cases on its territory – two people who contracted the virus while traveling to an affected area. The same goes for Chile, which on Tuesday detected the first Zika case on its soil.
#Zika : The Institut Pasteur recommends safe sex as a preventive measure https://t.co/OQWtKxn0nB #health pic.twitter.com/gIvqcTQiNK
– Pourquoidocteur (@Pourquoidocteur) February 3, 2016
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