Sunday 23 October 2016

Microcephaly cases under investigation for links to Zika virus in Colombia keep accruing...

Diagnoses of Zika virus infection linked to microcephaly continue to very slowly rise in Colombia, rising by 11 since the end of July 2016 - with 1 new case in this most recent reporting week to reach a total of 47.[1] 

Brazil reports 2,033 cases of Zika virus congenital syndrome (CZVS) as of 20-OCT-2016, among a background of 109,596 "confirmed" cases.[2] However, a confirmed case listed by Brazil includes confirmed and probable cases as described by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) definition.[3]

Meanwhile the number of microcephaly (?CZVS or just head size?) cases that remain under investigation in Colombia continue to accumulate. 

Up until  mid-June, these numbers used to be in double digits, but they have risen dramatically (yellow dots in graph above) since then to reach over 300 and continue to climb steadily. How many of these will be added to the microcephaly/CZVS total is unclear.

References...

  1. http://www.ins.gov.co/boletin-epidemiologico/Boletn%20Epidemiolgico/Forms/public.aspx
  2. http://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&Itemid=270&gid=36621&lang=en
  3. http://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11117&Itemid=41532&lang=en

Sunday 9 October 2016

Zika virus in Colombia is very quiet - but undiagnosed rashy fever disease hasn't gone away...

Just a quick snapdate today.

Clinically suspect cases of Zika virus (ZIKV)  infection have increased by 227-933/week for the past 12 weeks (red graph) - but none have been confirmed as ZIKV by the Colombian Institute of Health.

That seems to indicate just how terrible clinical diagnoses is. Otherwise, there's a testing or reporting problem.
The green graph below shows the flat line that indicates no new positives confirmed by laboratory testing.


Thankfully, we also continue to see few new cases of ZIKV-linked congenital syndromes. Although, this is also something of a conundrum.
Pregnant women are not being reported with many new confirmed or suspected ZIKV diagnoses - which makes sens of there is no rise in confirmed cases overall.