YEKATERINBURG, November 23 /TASS/. Russia’s consumer rights watchdog dubbed as Rospotrebnadzor will go ahead with preventive measures to combat the Zika virus despite the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced the epidemic’s end, Anna Popova, the head of the consumer watchdog, stated at a conference on measures to fight HIV and AIDS in Yekaterinburg, the administrative center of Russia’s Urals region on Wednesday.
She noted that 12 cases of imported Zika virus had been recorded in Russia at the moment. "They are tourists from the Caribbean countries. Despite the fact that the WHO has announced an end to the emergency several days ago, the problem remains crucial and we will go ahead with our preventive measures," Popova stated.
She recalled that the watchdog had started taking measures to hold back the Zika virus (ZIKV) from penetrating into the Russian Black Sea coast and it has been helping colleagues in Abkhazia since February. "The Zika virus is spread by mosquitoes, which originate from Egypt. In a bid to curb the epidemic, we trained entomologists and worked hectares of territory both in Russia and Abkhazia," Popova said.
She praised the Sochi municipal authorities and the leadership of Russia’s southern Krasnodar territory for helping avoid complications and reduce the population of mosquitoes, which might have provoked a Zika outbreak in Russia.
Popova also said that Russia might start delivering an anti-cholera vaccine to Haiti currently rocked by an outbreak of the illness.
"A troublesome cholera predicament has erupted in Haiti following a tsunami, and we are now working on the possibility of delivering an anti-cholera vaccine to that country," the Russian official said.
Popova described the cholera situation in Russia as stable. According to her, the illness is imported into Russia from abroad once or twice a year.