Uganda requests removal of WHO travel advisory list Zika

The Zika virus takes its name from the Zika Forest in Uganda, the country where the virus was first identified. Recently, however, the Ugandan Ministry of Health has challenged the country's listing on the World Health Organization (WHO) list of health advice for the Zika virus, insisting that the virus does not currently circulate in the region

. In 1945, the rhesus monkey in Uganda discovered the first human cases reported in 1952. Over the following decades, the virus has spread to parts of West Africa and Africa. Asia and, in 1983, was detected in mosquitoes. India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan. Prior to 2007, when the first major Zika outbreak in humans affected an island in the Federated States of Micronesia, there had been only 14 documented human cases of the virus. Outbreaks in French Polynesia and in other Pacific islands occurred before the major outbreak that began in 2015 in Brazil and in other parts of Central and South America. Pregnant women have been advised to avoid traveling to countries with recent outbreaks of Zika, due to the risk of microcephaly .

Uganda has not reported any human cases or outbreaks of Zika virus, but the country has recently been included. The WHO travel guidelines warn pregnant women to avoid traveling to Uganda. In addition, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists the country as one of dozens of African countries with Zika risk and CDC health information for traveling in Uganda notes that "Zika is a risk in Uganda.Zika infection during pregnancy can cause serious birth defects." Therefore, pregnant women should not travel to Uganda. couples planning a pregnancy should be aware of possible risks for pregnancy and take preventative measures. "In the recent news in response to the country's inclusion in Zika's travel notices, the Ugandan Ministry of Health challenges

The Ugandan Minister of Health, Jane Ruth Aceng, MBChB, MMed, MPH, now asks WHO to explain how the agency has determined that Zika circulates e t call false information. "It's a very bad information, so while it's been discovered in Uganda, we do not have it and they know it very well," Dr. Aceng said in a recent interview. Even when it broke out in Brazil, we did not have it here. "Ugandan officials worry that its inclusion in WHO's Zika travel advisory will jeopardize its tourism industry – especially worries among pregnant women or those trying to conceive – and asking to be removed from Zika's travel warnings.

The WHO is currently advising pregnant women to avoid visiting countries affected by Zika with classifications of categories 1 and 2. According to the WHO, Category 2 zones are those which show signs of circulation of Zika virus before 2015 or in the course of transmission, who may also experience an epidemic of Zika but do not respond category 1 and 3 criteria. Uganda has been classified in category 2, with Latin American countries affected by Zika epidemics 2015-2016; the list includes Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Jamaica, Venezuela and several African countries.