When individuals are infected with Zika virus, their immune systems produce neutralising antibodies to fight the infection.
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“Pregnant women should consider postponing nonessential travel to affected areas until after the pregnancy”. But imported cases into the county increase the chance of local spread to humans by mosquitoes, Williamson County officials told the Statesman.
No mosquitoes in Miami or elsewhere in Florida have tested positive for Zika, but four Miami-area patients who contracted the disease did not get it by traveling to an outbreak country or from sex with an infected person.
“Florida is far from us, fortunately we do not have those mosquito species that could transmit the Zika virus here in B.C. I think that we are ok, we are not anticipating any endemic cases.”
If women are bitten by an infected insect they are more than likely to give birth to a child with the head shrinking condition called microcephaly.
The CDC has urged pregnant women in the United States not to visit the 60-plus countries and territories where Zika is prevalent.
The popular holiday destination is thought to be in the mist of an outbreak after seeing 300 cases of the disease liked to travel overseas, but now four cases have been reported from people who have never left the state.
He said that while health officials have reported four infections, there are probably more that have not been diagnosed, and that people should not be surprised if mosquitoes are soon found to be spreading Zika in Louisiana and Texas as well. The FDA has also asked blood donation centers in two Florida counties near the transmission site, Miami-Dade and Broward, to halt blood donations for the time being.
The World Health Organisation and PHE are also warning athletes taking part in the Brazil Olympics or people planning to go to Rio to protect themselves against bites while there and take precautions when they return.
For the study, scientists took serum samples from people infected by Zika virus strains circulating in South America and mixed them with multiple strains of the virus in the laboratory to see how well the serum antibodies neutralised the virus.
We continue to learn about Zika virus, and we are working hard to find out more about these cases.
Health officials have warned Americans for more than a year to avoid travel to regions where the Zika virus posed a serious threat.
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These would not, however, be the first cases of person-to-person Zika transmission within the US.
