Reuters: WHO urges use of polio detection systems to screen for Zika-linked disorder
“A neurological condition linked to the mosquito-borne Zika virus could be targeted globally with existing national programs for detecting polio, a paper co-authored by World Health Organization researchers said on Tuesday. … Surveillance systems in place in 177 out of 194 WHO member states currently check for acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) as part of the U.N. agency’s global polio eradication program. The stools of children younger than 15 years are analyzed in laboratory to confirm polio or identify non-polio AFP cases, which include Guillain-Barré syndrome cases[, a condition sometimes linked to Zika]…” (Nebehay, 7/5).