Medicine

More than 3,100 pregnant Colombian women are infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Feb. 6, as the disease continues its rapid spread across the Americas. 

There are 25,645 people infected with Zika in Colombia, Santos said during a TV broadcast with health officials. Among them are 3,177 pregnant women. 

Zika, the mosquito-borne virus spreading through the Americas that has been linked to thousands of babies born with underdeveloped brains (microcephaly), is just the latest new disease to spread panic around the world. And wait! News just in that it can be sexually transmitted too!

Ireland’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) confirmed that two people affected by Zika virus.

One case is in a man and the other in an older woman, but both have recovered from the infection, BBC reports.

They both have a history of travel to a Zika affected country, while the HSE has said the cases are unrelated.

Turkish doctors at Antalya's Akdeniz University performed the country's third double arm transplant in an 11-hour operation on Feb. 2, with initial reports indicating the recipient is in good medical condition. 

A small Australian maker of bug sprays became an unlikely beneficiary of the mosquito-borne Zika virus outbreak this week when the country's Olympic team signed it up as its first official insect repellent sponsor. 

Brazil warned pregnant women on Feb. 1 to stay away from the Summer Olympics after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared an international emergency over the Zika virus, blamed for causing a surge in brain-damaged babies.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan declared on Monday that the Zika virus constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

Chan had convened an Emergency Committee to collect advice on the severity of the health threat associated with the continuing spread of Zika virus disease in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Zika virus does not pose a serious threat for Turkey due to geographical distance, says the head of the Turkish Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (KLIMIK), Professor Önder Ergönül, while warning that international travel to regions of outbreak risk pregnant women's lives.

Traditional cancer treatment methods like chemotherapy and radiotherapy are not ideal anymore, a Turkish medical oncology specialist has said ahead of World Cancer Day on Feb. 4, underscoring that new ways are being developed to prevent the growth of cancer cells by exploring the "cancer maps" in human genes.

The World Health Organization (WHO) readies to meet at a special meeting on Feb. 1 to decide if they should declare an international health emergency for the Zika virus, which is "spreading explosively" in the Americas and could see up to 4 million cases over the next year, international health officials said Jan. 28.