For local Aedes aegypti to spread Zika virus, they must bite an infected traveller shortly after they return from a country where the virus is circulating.
Advertisement
Zika virus disease is usually relatively mild and requires no specific treatment. United has linked to the Center for Disease Control’s Zika travel advice, which now includes Central America, South America and the Caribbean. She said the patient contracted the virus while travelling, adding that there was nothing “dramatic” about the case.
Officials in El Salvador, Colombia and Brazil have suggested women stop getting pregnant until the crisis has passed.
British Airways said pregnant customers with flights to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, or to Mexico City or Cancun (Mexico), could change their booking free of charge, delay their journey or choose an alternative destination.
Khan pointed out that US authorities would likely be far more effective in carrying out mosquito extermination efforts than their Latin American counterparts, and would likely be better able to stem the disease’s spread.
“This is not going to be overnight”, Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said in an interview Tuesday.
In addition to 19 cases in the continental United States, there have also been 19 people infected in the USA territory of Puerto Rico.
The Brazilian government announced a link between the Zika virus and microcephaly, after a spike in cases. That combination of right temperature and correct mosquito is found in parts of southern Florida, the Gulf Coast, and pockets of Southern California, said Kamran Khan, an infectious disease physician and scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
Of the 22 countries reporting cases, 20 are in the Americas.
Officials nationwide have warned travelers to take precautions from mosquitoes when visiting other countries. It is estimated that 500 babies will be born with microcephaly in the country.
Brazil said it would roll out more than 200,000 servicemembers to help clean up mosquitoes in the worst-affected areas.
The guidance is for doctors caring for infants born to mothers who traveled to Zika outbreak areas in Latin America or the Caribbean during their pregnancy.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the guidelines Tuesday.
Advertisement
“Current advice is that pregnant women should consider postponing travel to any region where a known outbreak of the Zika virus is occurring”. It would be a first for the nation that shares a border with Brazil. FILE – In this January 18, 2016, file photo, a female Aedes aegypti mosquito acquires a blood meal on the arm of a researcher at the Biomedical Sciences Institute in the Sao Paulo’s University in Sao Paulo, Brazil. That led to outbreaks of dengue, which was recorded in record numbers past year.
