Late last week, Florida health officials said they were investigating a second possible case of locally transmitted Zika infection.
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Jul 28, 2016- Health officials in Florida are investigating four cases of Zika that do not appear to be related to travel. Of those, four were shown in test-tube experiments to inhibit an Asian strain of Zika virus from infecting cells.
On 25th July 2016, Colombia was the first country in Latin America to declare the end of their Zika outbreak.
Previously the United Nations agency had advised pregnant women to consider deferring non-essential travel to areas with ongoing transmission of the mosquito-borne virus, which is spreading through Latin America, including Olympics host Brazil. He added that this is especially important for pregnant women who want to know if they were infected by Zika virus earlier in their pregnancy. That’s because only one in five people with Zika develop symptoms, which include rash, fever, muscle aches and headaches.
Zika can lead to newborns suffering severe brain-related defects, although the disease causes only a mild illness in most people.
“We can expect more cases and further geographical spread”, Chan said. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news. In additional experiments, the scientists first prophylactically treated mice with either the most potent Zika neutralizing antibodies or with antibodies directed toward an unrelated Chikungunya virus, and a day later exposed the mice to Zika virus.
“Other modes of transmission have been identified, including passing the Zika infection from mother to baby and sexual transmission from infected partners”.
“Importantly, some of our antibodies are able to neutralize African, Asian and American strains of Zika virus to about the same degree”, Daved Fremont, a professor of pathology and immunology and a co-senior author on the paper, said in a statement.
AN increase in the cases of the zika virus was expected with the onset of rains, and testing for the virus by the Caribbean Public Health Agency is being restricted for at-risk persons says Chief Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health, Dr Akenath Misir.
But the virus also has been linked to a rare paralyzing condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome.
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On Monday, the U.S. Centers Disease Control and Prevention issued an updated guidance on the virus.
