Situation Report

Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly spoke with Obama by phone in early July and confirmed the plan that will involve enhanced sharing of information about al-Nusra's positions in Syria. Reuters

CLICK HERE - Terms of Reference for the Joint Implementation Group (8 page .PDF file)

businessinsider.com - by Natasha Bertrand - July 23, 2016

Russian warplanes bombed a garrison used by US and British forces in Syria twice last month, despite being warned by a US surveillance aircraft flying nearby that the base was not occupied or being used by members of ISIS.

The airstrikes — which hit the base in southeastern Syria just 24 hours after 20 British special forces had left and killed four US-backed rebels — appear to have been Moscow's way of pressuring the US into sharing military intelligence and coordinating more closely with the Russians in Syria, The Wall Street Journal's Adam Entous reported. . . .

Jamilly Vitoria Santos da Silva, center, stands next to her mother, Rebeca Arruda as they wash a dog in a bucket in a favela as members of the Brazilian military along with health care workers to talk to residents about the threat of Zika virus. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

CLICK HERE - Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) - Fiocruz identifies Culex in Recife with the potential to transmit the virus zika (translation to English provided below)

washingtonpost.com - by Dom Phillips - July 21, 2016

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian researchers said Thursday they have found Zika in Culex mosquitoes in the northeastern city of Recife in what could prove to be an important discovery. But they cautioned that more study was needed.

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via Google Translate

Fiocruz identifies Culex in Recife with the potential to transmit the virus zika

The mosquito that typically transmits Zika — the Aedes aegypti — does not usually range into northern Utah, but maps of the mosquito’s range can be unreliable and experts say it is theoretically possible that it has made it there. Credit Felipe Dana/Associated Press

nytimes.com - by Sabrina Tavernise - July 18, 2016

WASHINGTON — The Zika virus continues to surprise. On Monday, the Utah Department of Health reported that a new case had been diagnosed that did not appear to have be contracted through the two known sources of transmission: a mosquito bite or sexual contact.

The patient, who has since fully recovered, was a “family contact” who helped care for an older man who had become infected with the virus after traveling abroad. . . .

. . . The new case is something of a medical mystery: Zika is known to be transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito and through sex, but neither seemed to be a plausible explanation for what happened in Utah.

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An aedes aegypti mosquito is seen inside a test tube as part of a research on preventing the spread of the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases at a control and prevention center in Guadalupe, neighbouring Monterrey, Mexico, March 8, 2016.
Reuters/Daniel Becerril/File Photo

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - Science - Countering Zika in Latin America

reuters.com - by Julie Steenhuysen - July 14, 2016

The Zika outbreak rampaging through Latin America will likely burn itself out in the next two to three years, based on the fact that people develop immunity to the virus after an initial infection, British scientists said on Thursday.

The researchers, whose work is published in the journal Science, estimated that infections from the mosquito-borne virus will become so widespread in affected countries that populations will develop what is called "herd immunity." This occurs when a high percentage of a population has become immune to an infection either through developing natural immunity or through vaccination, making a wider outbreak less likely.