The health ministers of 12 Latin-American countries have agreed on centralised procurement of high-cost medicines to treat severe neurological conditions, which have increased potentially because of the Zika virus outbreak in the region, following the confirmation of some cases in which the virus had been transmitted through blood transfusions and sexual contact. However, these measures seem insufficient to address the health emergency caused by the outbreak of the virus.
IHS Life Sciences perspective | |
Implications | Twelve Latin-American nations have agreed to jointly procure high-cost medicines to treat serious neurological conditions, which have increased potentially because of the Zika virus outbreak in the region, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome. |
Outlook | Joint procurement of medicines and early diagnosis appear insufficient to address the health emergency caused by the outbreak of the virus. Without a vaccination programme to prevent further cases and the complete eradication of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, these regional efforts are not enough. A positive development was Us firm Inovio Pharmaceuticals' announcement that it could have a vaccine ready for emergency use before year-end. |
Twelve Latin-American countries have agreed to jointly purchase high-cost medicines to treat severe neurological conditions, which have increased potentially because of the Zika virus outbreak in the region, such as Guillain-Barré sydrome. According to Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, the agreement on this centralised procurement of medicines was reached yesterday (3 February) by the countries' health ministers in a meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay. The meeting was requested by Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff to determine a joint action to combat diseases transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
Another measure adopted during the meeting was the establishment of an emergency group to monitor and ensure that the health recommendations to stop the virus's propagation were being followed and to provide training to health professionals in the early diagnostic of the virus.
Cases of blood transfusion and sexually transmitted Zika
Health officials in Brazil reported two cases of the Zika virus being transmitted through blood transfusions, reports Dow Jones Newswire and several Brazilian sources. According to the source, both cases were reported by health authorities in Campinas, a wealthy industrial city with about one million inhabitants located an hour northwest of Sao Paulo. The two blood transfusions occurred during the first four months of 2015, but the presence of Zika in the transfusion recipients was not confirmed until recently, in part because they were initially diagnosed as being infected with dengue, another mosquito-borne virus.
Despite these two cases, the Brazilian Ministry of Health said that the capacity of Zika to spread through blood transfusions needed to be evaluated, as well as the preventive measures that should be adopted based on the new findings.
These two confirmed cases of Zika transmission through blood transfusion in Brazil were reported a day after the Dallas County Health and Human Services Department in the United States reported that a person had been infected with the Zika virus after having sex with someone who had visited Venezuela.
Outlook and implications
The joint procurement of medicines to treat conditions associated with Zika virus is a measure adopted to reduce costs in the domestic healthcare systems of the relevant countries, which have been negatively affected by the sharp increase of rare and costly conditions such as Guillain-Barré, a rare and serious condition of the peripheral nervous system. This joint effort to procure medicines could reduce prices in some medicines and would probably proceed given that the Latin-American region has been negotiating on centralised procurement of high-cost medicines through its regional blocs, the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur, see Latin America: 17 November 2015: Mercosur agrees centralised price for HIV treatment Prezista, negotiates discounts on HCV treatments with Gilead and Latin America: 30 September 2015: Unasur and Mercosur prepare negotiations for the centralised procurement of Sovaldi, Daklinza, Olysio, and Prezista by 2016).
Furthermore, working as a bloc to improve the detection and treatment of Zika symptoms seems reasonable considering that the virus has rapidly spread across Latin America, with an estimated 500,000 to 1.5 million people infected with the virus in Brazil, followed by Colombia, with more than 20,000 people, including at least 2,116 pregnant women, infected (source: Colombia's National Institute of Health). Venezuela is likely to be in the third or fourth place, but official data of Zika cases have not been released yet (see North America - Central America - Latin America: 27 January 2016: WHO warns Zika virus to spread across Americas as GSK and Sanofi consider developing a vaccine).
Nevertheless, the join procurement of medicines and early diagnosis seem insufficient to address the health emergency caused by the outbreak of the virus. Without a vaccination programme to prevent additional cases and the complete eradication of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, these regional efforts are not enough.
Meanwhile, in a positive development, Inovio Pharmaceuticals (US) has announced that it could have a vaccine ready for emergency use before the end of the year (see World: 2 February 2016: Potential Zika vaccine gains momentum as WHO declares global health emergency). However, it remains to be seen whether Inovio Pharmaceuticals manages to achieve this objective in time to arrest the current outbreak.
In the meantime, after the confirmed cases of the virus transmitted through blood transfusions, a number of countries are tightening their rules on blood donations in response to the global Zika outbreak. The American Red Cross has stated that it was asking potential blood donors who have been in Mexico, the Caribbean, or Central or South America to wait at least 28 days after their trip before donating.