Page 17 - DESPA 23JAN,2016

A12
WORLD NEWSSaturday 23 January 2016
Health officials probe tie between
Zika, paralyzing syndrome
MARCOS ALEMAN
JENNY BARCHFIELD
Associated Press
SAN SALVADOR, El Salva-
dor (AP) — Health officials
say they’re trying to deter-
mine if an unusual jump in
cases of a rare nerve con-
dition sometimes severe
enough to cause paralysis
is related to the spread of
the mosquito-borne Zika
A health worker fumigates to prevent Dengue, Chikunguya and Zika virus, at El Angel cemetery,
in Lima, Peru.
virus in at least two Latin
American countries.
Fears the illness might be
causing thousands of birth
defects already has led
authorities in Brazil, Colom- The World Health Organi-
bia and El Salvador to take
the drastic step of warning
women against becoming
pregnant. The U.S. Cen-
ters for Disease Control
and Prevention on Friday
expanded its warning for
pregnant women thinking
of visiting 22 destinations,
most in Latin America and
the Caribbean.
But concern also has been
rising about a potential link Barre. Brazilian officials too Local transmission of the
to Guillain-Barre syndrome,
a nerve disorder than can
affect anyone. It causes
muscle weakness, tingling
in the arms and legs and
sometimes temporary pa-
ralysis. Most people recov-
er fully, but severe cases
that affect muscles used to
breathe can be life-threat-
ening.
It’s thought to occur when
someone’s immune system
overreacts and attacks its
own nervous system cells,
often after various types
of infections. Researchers
have been suspicious of
the virus since French Poly-
nesia noted a jump in cases
of Guillain-Barre and micro-
cephaly, in which a child
is born with a small head,
that accompanied a wave
of Zika cases, though the
populations were far small-
er than in the recent out-
breaks
zation said Salvadoran au-
thorities reported 46 cases
of Guillain-Barre in just five significant spike in cases
weeks, from Dec. 1 to Jan.
6. The full-year average for
the country is 169 cases. It
said that of 22 patients on
which there was informa-
tion, at least 12 patients
had experienced a rash-
fever illness in the 15 days
before developing Guillain-
have said they’re investi-
gating a link between Guil-
lain-Barre and Zika.
Dr. Antonio Bandeira, an in-
fectologist with the Couto
Maia Hospital in the north-
eastern city of Salvador,
said that during last year’s
rainy season, when a Zika
outbreak was at its peak,
he had an unusual spate of
Haiti:
Presidential vote postponed again
patients with Guillain-Barre.
“Zika was really bad here DAVID McFADDEN
from February to July and Associated Press
then all but disappeared in PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A looming presidential
August. In May, June and election in Haiti that had already been postponed
July, we had 24 patients once and faced deep public skepticism was put on
come in with Guillain-Barre, hold indefinitely Friday as the country’s leaders sought
and none since August,” he to negotiate a resolution to what could soon become
said, adding that in previ- a constitutional crisis in the impoverished country.
ous years he generally only The Provisional Electoral Council decided to post-
saw two or three patients pone Sunday’s election because there is “too much
with the condition per year. violence throughout the country,” Pierre-Louis Opont,
president of the body that oversees elections, said at
a news conference. The capital has been rocked in
recent days by opposition protests calling for a halt to
the vote.
(AP Photo/Martin Mejia) In announcing its decision, the council did not set a
new date for the election. It also did not say whether
Nationwide, Guillain-Barre an interim government would take power after Feb.
had been so rare that the 7, when President Michel Martelly is required to leave
Health Ministry doesn’t office under the Constitution, or if he would remain in
track the exact number of his post until a replacement is elected.
cases. Still, officials here ac- Martelly was scheduled to address the nation later
knowledge the rise. Friday. His office did not immediately respond to a re-
“For sure, throughout the quest for comment from The Associated Press.
northeast we’ve quite a Opponents of the Martelly government have insisted
that the first round of the presidential balloting on Oct.
of Guillain-Barre,” said Pe- 25 was marred by massive fraud in favor of the presi-
dro Fernando Vasconce- dent’s hand-picked successor, businessman Jovenel
los, director of the Instituto Moise. The runoff was originally scheduled for Dec. 27,
Evandro Chagas health then rescheduled for Sunday.
research institute, in the Jude Celestin, a businessman who was the other can-
Amazonian city of Belem. didate in the race, said he would boycott the elec-
“And that rise is closely as- tion, though his name remained on the ballot.
sociated to the rise in cases Neither candidate had an immediate response to the
of Zika virus.” decision by the electoral council.
Protesters calling for a halt to Sunday’s election and
virus was first formally con- a new vote have grown increasingly violent in recent
firmed in the Americas only days, prompting the council to conclude it was too
nine months ago in Brazil, risky to try to hold an election. Haiti has only a shaky
where officials became handle on security even with the assistance of troops
alarmed by a sudden rise and police from a United Nations peacekeeping
in cases of microcephaly. force that has been in the country since a 2004 upris-
Since the start of October, ing ousted then-president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
the country has recorded Electoral Council offices across the country have been
3,893 cases of microceph- attacked and set on fire in recent days and election
aly, compared with 150 materials in a remote part of the country was hijacked
cases for all of 2014. by gunmen, Opont said.
Recent opposition-stoked protests in downtown Port-
au-Prince have ramped up the tension with rock-
throwing partisans and burning street barricades.
There’s been growing concern that the flawed run-
off might push the perennially volatile country of 10
million people to the edge of tumult, rolling back a
decade of relative political stability and putting the
brakes on foreign investment.
Elections are always a struggle in Haiti. It saw its first
genuinely democratic election in 1990, closely fol-
lowed by a coup d’etat. While there have been no
shortage of opposition boycotts since then, this is the
first time that a presidential candidate is boycotting a
runoff after qualifying for it.
Celestin recently told The Associated Press that Haiti
was “moving toward a selection, not an election.”
In an atmosphere weighted with uncertainty, Haiti’s
Senate and various civil society, religious and business
groups had called for a halt to Sunday’s runoff due to
deep public suspicion of fraud and meddling by the
U.S. and other foreign governments.