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 Vice Health Minister Fernando Ruiz told journalists that the number
of infections in Colombia has been falling by 600 cases a week.
While Zika is still circulating in the country, Colombia considers
the drop-off sufficient to say it has moved into an endemic phase
from the epidemic phase.
"We can declare that the epidemic is ended. Colombia is the first
country on the American continent to declare an end to the
epidemic," Ruiz said.
Zika has struck hardest in Brazil, where the outbreak was first
detected last year, and has since spread rapidly through the
Americas.
The disease can cause the devastating birth defect microcephaly, a
condition defined by abnormally small head size which can lead to
severe developmental problems in infants, as well as other
neurological problems. Brazil has reported more than 1,600 cases of
microcephaly linked to Zika, a spike not replicated elsewhere to
date.
Colombia's Zika outbreak has been closely monitored by infectious
disease experts to understand whether the virus will affect other
countries in a similar manner to Brazil. Colombia has reported
nearly 100,000 cases of infection, with 21 cases of Zika-related
microcephaly.
Some disease experts say they are reluctant to say the worst of the
outbreak has passed in Colombia, particularly with mosquito season
due to resume in the country within a few months, and the many
unknowns surrounding the first mosquito-borne virus that can also be
transmitted through sexual contact.
"It's difficult to make predictive statements on an epidemic when
the vast majority of cases go unreported," said Dr. Peter Hotez,
dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College
of Medicine in Texas. About 80 percent of Zika infections are
believed to be asymptomatic.
"There is a possibility that it has not taken hold in Colombia as it
has in Brazil and Puerto Rico, but we're not going to know the full
impact of this epidemic for several more months until we see whether
additional waves of microcephaly cases are born," Hotez said.
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British scientists predicted earlier this month that it will take
two to three years for the current Zika outbreak to come to an end
in Latin America, assuming that enough people have been infected and
become immune to the virus.
Colombia's Health Ministry has also lifted its recommendation that
women delay pregnancy because of the virus, Ruiz said, though there
may be new outbreaks of the disease in future.
Colombia expects that there will be an uptick of cases of
microcephaly in September and October, Ruiz said, when pregnant
women infected during the peak of the epidemic will give birth.
The World Health Organization has said there is strong scientific
consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare
neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults.
Colombia has reported 350 cases of the condition connected to Zika.
There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, which is a close cousin
of dengue and chikungunya and causes mild fever, rash and red eyes
in cases with symptoms.
(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb, additional reporting by Bill
Berkrot in New York; Editing by Helen Murphy and Alan Crosby)
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