Rousseff, Obama discuss cooperation on Zika vaccine
President Dilma Rousseff and US President Barack Obama decided to create a high-level bilateral group to make a vaccine for Zika virus. The two presidents talked on the telephone Friday (Jan. 29) and agreed to join efforts to develop the vaccine and therapies against the virus. Zika is related to microcephaly in newborns.
The research will be supported by an existing cooperation of Brazil's Butantan institute and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), which are working on a vaccine for dengue fever, a disease transmitted by the same mosquito as Zika's, the Aedes aegypti.
During the call, Rousseff and Obama decided that Brazil's Health Minister Marcelo Castro and the US Department of Health will keep close contact to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the area.
This week, Brazil's federal government launched clean-up actions to eliminate potential breeding sites for Aedes aegypti. Chikungunya, another virus transmitted by the same mosquito, has caused the death of a person in Recife, Pernambuco. Danielle Santana, 17, had an acute myositis associated with the virus.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Rousseff, Obama discuss cooperation on Zika vaccine
