The Hawaii mother and baby are not infectious according to the state’s Department of Health, so there is no risk of transmission on the island.
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A warning has been issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cautioning women to avoid traveling to countries and territories during pregnancy where mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus are prevalent. Symptoms of the illness include mild fever, joint pain and skin rash.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that the virus was a rare disease in the past and it might be linked to various birth defects. However pregnant women are more likely to give birth to children with a condition known as microcephaly – characterized by a small head and undeveloped brain.
Brazil has been the hardest hit, documenting more than 3,500 cases of microcephaly between October 2015 and January 2016. There have been no reports of cases transmitted locally in the United States. The U.S. alert, however, is cautious to state that the relationship between the neurological disorder and the Zika virus, transmitted by the mosquito that also transmits dengue fever, has not been definitely established.
It said that 26 cases of Zika infection have been diagnosed in the United States since 2007 among people who contracted the disease outside the country. “We are in contact with global laboratories, with our laboratories in Brazil, so we can develop, in record time, a vaccine against Zika, which will be much simpler to develop than dengue, which has four serotypes”. Even though three quarters of those people who get the virus are not even aware of the fact that they had it last May in Brazil there were reported a number of increasing cases of microcephaly.
“We are saddened by the events that have affected this mother and her newborn”, Dr. Sarah Park, an epidemiologist with Hawaii’s Department of Health, said in a statement.
In an interview Thursday, Petersen noted that the latest test results show “increasingly strong evidence of a link” between the virus and this congenital condition.
The public health agency held a media telebriefing Friday evening related to “interim travel guidance” for areas with ongoing Zika virus transmission.
The travel alert applies to Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.
In addition, if you have the Zika virus, avoid mosquito bites during the first week of the illness to help prevent the spread of the disease.
The Hawaii newborn “further emphasizes the importance of the CDC travel recommendations released today”, Dr. Park said. That’s a lot for Brazil, which usually has 100 to 200 microcephaly cases per year.
Wear long-sleeved shirts and long trousers.
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After that, the incidence gradually fell until November, when it started to increase again, which is considered normal because warmer climates favor the reproduction of dengue-transmitting mosquitos, Aedes aegypti.
