The State Health Department of Health says 2 more people in Pennsylvania have had confirmed cases of the Zika virus, which brings the total number in PA, up to 4. Test results are also pending on 124 people. Health officials haven’t released any details about the cases, because of privacy issues.
With nearly 100 confirmed cases of travel-related Zika virus in the United States, a lab in Texas is working on a vaccine. Doctor Robert Tesh of the University of Texas Medical Branch has known about Zika since the 1960’s. He says, “until the virus really got to Brazil and there was a lot of cases, nobody was really was interested. ” But that’s obviously changed.
Zika may be linked to the birth defect microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with abnormally small heads, due to stunted brain growth.
Doctor Shannan Rossi recently traveled there from Texas and saw devastating effects of the virus, first-hand.
The University of Texas Medical Branch is home to one of the worlds largest collection of viruses. Nearly 7,000 samples are stored at the facility. With the focus now on Zika, Rossi and a team of scientists are working on a quick test to detect the virus in humans, and eventually develop a vaccine.
“Every single day that people like me and my colleagues are on the bench, we’re one step closer to the vaccine,” she says.
The National Institutes of Health says there could be a Zika vaccine by the end of 2017.
Meantime, two other Texas hospitals announced on Tuesday that they’ve created a test that can identify Zika within hours, but they say they won’t make it available across the country.