UH researchers push for Zika studies

Mosquitos continue to spread the Zika virus across the globe as Washington lawmakers debate spending close to $2 billion to combat it.

In Hawaii researchers are renewing efforts to fund Zika studies, something they previously had trouble getting approvals for.

"We don't know how to diagnose, we don't have a vaccine, we don't have the therapy. Its important that we develop those things in Hawaii. We need to be on the forefront. We have talent and people here in Hawaii and we need to take advantage of them," said Prof. Vivek Nerukar, Chair of the Tropical Medicine department at the University of Hawaii School of Medicine.

The idea is to build on the medical school's strengths since there is already research work underway to deal with other infectious diseases like dengue and Ebola.

"We are trying to submit grant proposals with the National Institute for Health NIH. They are mostly focused on diagnosis and vaccines. We have full capability here in doing those kinds of tests," said Neukar.

The emphasis he thinks should be on diagnosing the cases in 8 hours, not 8 days.

"The girl who was diagnosed in New Zealand who came from Tonga, she didn't not get her results for ten days after being in agony for ten days," said Nerukar.

Scientists are racing to find the link between Zika and birth defects as the images of babies born with smaller heads has captured the world's attention.

The CDC has now raised the alert level on Zika to its highest -- level one.

Currently, CDC staff assigned to the Honolulu International Airport are in Samoa which saw its first Zika case in November.  Now, Tonga is on the travel advisory.

Australia and New Zealand are reaching out to help curb the outbreak of seven confirmed cases on the tiny island nation.

Zika is not new to researchers at UH who say the first reported case in the Pacific was in 2007.

     

Author: 
KITV