Pentagon to relocate family members at risk of Zika virus

WASHINGTON — Pregnant family members of active-duty personnel and civilian Defense Department employees assigned to areas with the Zika virus will be offered voluntary relocation, a Defense Department official said Monday.

Responding to a growing concern over the “explosive” outbreak of Zika virus in South and Central America as well as the Caribbean, U.S. Southern Command with headquarters Doral, Fla., also is identifying ways to support partner nations but has not yet received requests for help, said Marine Corps Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Department of Defense spokesman.

Department of Defense researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and Naval Medical Research units are stepping up efforts to develop vaccines, diagnostic tests and treatments for Zika and related viruses, including dengue and chikungunya, according to Pentagon officials.

The Pentagon will collaborate with other government agencies as part of the U.S. response, led by the Health and Human Services Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, spokesman Peter Cook said Thursday.

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"This is an area where the DoD has done some research in the past,” Cook said. “I think some of that expertise will be brought to this effort. We’ll be supporting HHS in whatever way we can.”

The mosquito-borne Zika virus, first identified in monkeys in Africa in 1947, was largely confined to Africa and Asia before 2015 when it was first detected in Brazil. Its spread in that country has coincided with a surge in a severe birth defect, microcephaly, in more than 3,800 babies, leading health officials and the State Department to issue travel advisories for those countries for women who are pregnant or might become pregnant.

The spread of Zika also has coincided with an increase in Brazil of Guillain-Barre syndrome, an autoimmune disease that can cause muscle weakness and paralysis.

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The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency, estimating that more than 4 million people may be infected by the end of the year. On Monday, a WHO advisory panel also said that the link between Zika and microencephaly is strongly suspected.

Since the Spanish American War in 1898, the Defense Department has maintained a robust tropical disease research program with interest in mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue as well as rare illnesses that have no cure, like Ebola and Marburg virus.

Navy Capt. Kyle Petersen, a professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences who recently commanded Naval Medical Research Unit 6 in Lima, Peru, said the Pentagon's interest in neglected tropical diseases is important for military readiness.

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"DoD traditionally targets (these diseases) that aren't of high interest to pharmaceutical companies because our troops go into tropical countries. We want to make sure they can do their jobs, whether it's for a humanitarian mission or operations," Petersen said.

Malaria is the most widespread and deadly mosquito-borne disease. But Defense Department researchers also have been heavily targeting dengue and chikungunya, which are related to Zika. Until the alarming increase in birth defects in Brazil, Zika largely flew under the research radar, he said.

"I would say there is only 148 papers in the medical literature about this virus," Petersen said. "We used to call it chikungunya light.”

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No more: Last week, President Obama met with CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden and health and national security officials to discuss Zika's potential spread.

Navy Capt. Tim Burgess, deputy director of the Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program at the Uniformed Services University, said the new emphasis on Zika will contribute to a larger understanding — and perhaps a vaccine or cure — of all three diseases.

"Colleagues at Naval Medical Research and WRAIR (Walter Reed Army Institute of Research) are developing diagnostic tests that can be used more rapidly than what is being used currently," Burgess said.

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Zika is caused by the day-biting mosquito A aegypti, the same mosquito that is capable of transmitting yellow fever.

Rankine-Galloway said the U.S. military is not making any changes to exercises, training or deployments related to the outbreak but is continuing to stress protective measures for personnel, including using insect repellent, wearing long sleeves and trousers, wearing clothes treated with premetherin, removing standing water where possible and remaining indoors in air-conditioned or screened areas where possible.

Petersen reaffirmed the advice.

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"Wear your bug repellent. Wear DEET. If you are going to the tropics, apply it liberally," he said.

Twenty-two countries in the Western Hemisphere have reported cases of Zika, according to the CDC The country or territory with the largest population of U.S. troops and family members is Puerto Rico.

The Defense Department doesn't have a final number yet on troops and dependents who potentially could be exposed to the virus.

Follow Patricia Kime on Twitter: @patriciakime