Some areas have declared a state of emergency, with four Latin American and Caribbean nations warning women to avoid pregnancy. “That’s why pregnant women and women who are considering pregnancy should delay planned travel to areas where Zika virus outbreaks are ongoing”.
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The Zika virus is spread to people through the bite of an infected mosquito, the same mosquito that transmits dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.
Preventative measures focus on general mosquito bite prevention, such as using insecticides, and special nets and screens. People who have recovered from an infection can not spread the virus to mosquitoes and people don’t infect other people, with the rare possibility that men may sometimes transmit it in sperm.
Forty-nine babies with suspected microcephaly have died, Brazil’s health ministry said.
Health experts are unsure what is causing its recent, rapid spread.
However, women’s rights campaigners criticised the recommendations, saying women in the region often had little choice about becoming pregnant.
Remarking on the development of vaccines by drug firms, director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins said, “We need to have some kind of a plan that makes (companies) feel there is a sustainable solution and not just a one-shot deal over and over again”, Reuters reported.
Colombia’s health ministry says Zika has already infected 13,500 people across the country and there could be as many as 700,000 cases this year.
Earlier this month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged pregnant women to postpone travel to Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.
Santo Domingo: The Dominican Republic said Saturday it has 10 confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, the ailment suspected of causing serious birth defects in newborns.
The Zika virus is mainly found in South America, Africa, the Pacific Islands, and Southeast Asia. Patients-especially children-should also be evaluated for malaria, rubella, measles, parvovirus, adenovirus, enterovirus, leptospirosis, rickettsia and group A streptococcal infections, because all may produce symptoms similar to Zika’s.
Several Zika-affected countries reported increases in the muscle-weakening Guillain Barre syndrome, according to the agency, although it concluded that further studies were required “to assess the strength of the association” between the two.
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The warning came on Monday after epidemiological data showed that the number of countries showing confirmed cases had doubled between December 1, 2015 and January 17, 2016; a difference of only eight weeks.
