Zika causes only a mild illness in most people. Symptoms usually clear up within a few days.
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Two pregnant women from IL have tested positive for the Zika (ZEE’-ka) virus after traveling in Honduras and Haiti.
“There is virtually no risk to IL residents since you can not contract Zika virus from another person, but only through the bite of an infected mosquito”, IDPH Director Nirav D. Shah, M.D., J.D. said in a statement.
Outbreaks of Zika Virus have occurred in areas of Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas. See a complete list of countries where the Zika Virus has been transmitted.
A baby in Brazil born with microcephaly, a condition in which the brain is abnormally small. Since then, the CDC announced the health alert for pregnant women who have been planning a trip to these areas. It’s especially problematic in Brazil, where it’s appears to be connected to a serious birth defect.
In reporting the laboratory confirmation from CDC, the state health department said the child’s mother probably had a Zika infection while living in Brazil during the spring.
It’s possible that the first case of Zika-related microcephaly has already happened in the United States.
Aedes aegypti is the mosquito that carries the dengue and Zika viruses, among others.
If testing shows signs of Zika virus infection, ultrasounds should be considered to monitor the fetus’ development.
According to Dr. Park, Hawaii’s current Fight the Bite campaign aims to address all mosquito-borne illnesses, not just dengue.
The U.S. government action follows reports that at least 3,500 cases of microcephaly appeared in Brazil between October 2015 and January 2016, the CDC said.
“It now seems there might be an association between the virus and central nervous system problems, neurological problems, which cause microcephaly in women who are pregnancy when they get the disease”, Goldhagen said.
(The Zika virus may have arrived during the 2014 World Cup.) Recently, an American mother who had travelled to Brazil while she was pregnant had a microcephalic baby back home in Hawaii, and also tested positive for Zika.
The secretary that the authorities have undertaken fumigation programs in various towns, particularly where tires are sold, since mosquitoes breed in the standing water that collects there.
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“I think we’re still trying to figure out what’s going on with Zika and pregnant women – whether or not it’s a certain time period of when they’re exposed – whether it’s the whole duration of the pregnancy”, she added.
