Declares Zika "imminent danger" to public health -Brazil's president

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff Monday declared the Zika virus an "imminent danger" to public health, giving the government more power to contain an epidemic that has already led to over 4,000 birth defects.

The decree, published in the Government Gazette, authorizes government officials to call on police departments to help in the fight to eradicate the mosquito that transmits the virus.
The decree also gives health officials the right to enter private property, by force if necessary, as part of the campaign to locate and eliminate mosquito breeding grounds.
Health officials aided by military troops have inspected 10.9 million properties in 3,000 cities across the country.
The Zika virus may cause moderate symptoms in people bitten, but can infect the fetus in pregnant women, leading to microcephaly, or infants born with abnormally small heads. It has since late last year spread to at least 23 countries in the Americas.


The virus has also been linked to a spike in Guillain-Barre syndrome, a microcephaly and a rare neurological disorder during which the immune system attacks the nervous system, sometimes leading to paralysis.
On Monday, following an emergency meeting convened in Geneva, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced "the recent cluster of neurological disorders and neonatal malformations reported in the Americas region constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern."
Brazil, the worst hit country so far, first declared a public health emergency in November, after doctors in the poorer northeast region of the country noticed a sudden rise in cases of microcephaly.