The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued a “Level-2” travel alert in 14 countries and territories in the Western Hemisphere due to the startling spread of the Zika virus.
Advertisement
“We are saddened by the events that have affected this mother and her newborn”, Hawaii State Epidemiologist Sarah Park said in a statement. “This case further emphasizes the importance of the CDC travel recommendations released today”.
The CDC on Friday recommended that pregnant women consider postponing travel to any countries or regions with active Zika virus transmission.
On Saturday, Barbados reported its first case.
That same advice holds for women who are trying to get pregnant, or contemplating starting a family. Six Hawaii residents are known to have had the virus since 2014, but all picked it up through travel elsewhere.
Petersen said U.S. experience to date with similar mosquito-borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya suggests that facets of the North American lifestyle – living in air-conditioned homes and dwellings with screens on windows and doors – should limit how much the virus would spread here.
There have been 26 Zika infections diagnosed in the United States, dating back to 2007, CDC officials said Friday.
In Washington, D.C., administration officials said the decision to issue a travel alert developed quickly at the end of the week and triggered a flurry of diplomatic contacts with the countries named in the alert, given the potential economic and tourism impact the decision could have.
Because Zika’s “turf” is spreading – now showing up in Puerto Rico and Haiti – and because the virus was found in two Brazilian newborns who died, as well as in the placentas of two women who miscarried.
Zika virus is presently confirmed in 15 countries in the region of the Americas. “There is no medication and there is no vaccine, but for most adults it will cause [only] a viral-type illness with body aches and fever”.
Zika virus can cause fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis, with symptoms usually lasting under a week.
Before 2015 Zika had only been seen in parts of Africa, southeast Asia and some Pacific islands. The New York Times reports that the virus is not closely related to others that cause microcephaly, such as rubella.
It’s the first case of brain damage linked to the virus in the United States.
“The mother likely had Zika infection when she was residing in Brazil in May 2015 and her newborn acquired the infection in the womb”.
At the moment the only way to fight Zika is to clear standing water where mosquitoes breed.
Advertisement
The Zika and dengue viruses – like virtually all mosquito-borne diseases – do not occur in mosquito larvae. A mosquito becomes infected by taking a blood meal from an infected person, then passes the virus on when it bites additional people.
