'I am trying to understand...what we are seeing...': Zika stumps experts

Scientists are confused on why Zika goes straight to the brain in unborn children while it stays in urine, saliva and semen of those infected.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Since Zika exploded in Latin America and the Caribbean, other countries, including America, have reported cases.

Marcos Espinal, of the Pan American Health Organization, told NBC News that the latest reports show Bonaire and Aruba islands have also been caught in the virus' war path.

The world population has nearly no immunity to Zika and the virus spreads like fire through mosquito bites and can lead to brain damage and deformities in unborn children.

Dr. Stephen Thomas, an Army colonel and virus expert at the Walter Reed Army Institute for Research admitted he was trying to understand why Brazil has seen such a spread of the Zika virus when it has not been reported to be as terrible anywhere in world in the past 30 years.

In the past, Zika cause mild symptoms -if any symptoms at all.

One study suggested 80 percent of those infected with the virus were never made aware, while the other 20 percent only experienced milk effects such as a small fever or rash.

There is no time-sensitive test for Zika, leading those who are infected to continue without knowing for certain whether they are infected.

In his studies, Thomas found an outbreak from 2013-14 that left traces of itself in only 28 percent of the victims' blood, but genetic material of the virus was discovered in the saliva samples of 57 percent of patients.

"It makes me question whether blood is the proper fluid to be sampling if (you) want to capture Zika," Thomas announced at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health earlier this week.

Ann-Claire Gourinat from the Institut Pasteur in Noumea, New Caledonia, studied the Tahiti outbreak and reported: "Urine samples were positive for Zika virus more than 10 days after onset of disease, which was a notably longer period than for serum samples. This finding supports the conclusion that urine samples are useful for diagnosis of Zika virus infections."

Thomas admitted the findings suggest blood tests for Zika may not be in the best interest of time. He also questions whether Zika is limited to mosquito-to-human transmission. 

Several experts agree, stating that "There's an urgent need to understand the other modes of transmission and to communicate effectively about them."

Scientists and other experts are currently investigating whether the virus has changed in some way and whether it can be cross-reacting with dengue in people who have been infected with both viruses, or if it is something new entirely.

We ask you, humbly, to help.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

---

The California Network is the Next Wave in delivery of information and entertainment on pop culture, social trends, lifestyle, entertainment, news, politics and economics. We are hyper-focused on one audience, YOU, the connected generation. JOIN US AS WE REDEFINE AND REVOLUTIONIZE THE EVER-CHANGING MEDIA LANDSCAPE.