The CDC has also advised any pregnant women who have traveled to countries with the Zika virus to get tested for the virus if they are have two or more symptoms of the virus.
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Among the countries travelers are being warned against going to: Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela.
The Zika virus is primarily transmitted by Aedes aegypti, the type of mosquito responsible for spreading dengue, yellow fever, and a whole host of other tropical infectious diseases.
The illness can last anywhere from several days to a week and rarely results in death or hospitalization.
Last Friday, the CDC issued a travel warning for 14 countries and territories exposed to the Zika virus, which has been linked to a torrent of birth defects in Brazil.
The Zika virus, which has only recently moved beyond Africa and Southeast Asia, has already had debilitating effects in the Americas.
No U.S. mosquitoes have been found to be carrying the virus.
An unusual number of babies were born with microcephaly- as many as 3,500 so far, according to the World Health Organization.
Zika virus is spread through the bite of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the same vector for chikungunya and dengue.
The Zika virus, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, can not spread between humans.
Microcephaly, of which the newborn’s head size is smaller than expected, often means that the infant’s brain is smaller and might not have developed properly, according to Cynthia Moore, MD, PhD, the director of the CDC’s Division of Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. Women who are pregnant, or trying to become pregnant, and who must travel to those areas should consult their doctor, and take strict measures to avoid mosquito bites on their trip. The Fiocruz biomedical centre in Curitiba announced it had found Zika in the placenta of a woman who had a miscarriage, proving the virus can reach the foetus.
The CDC and only a few state health departments have the capability to conduct the test to confirm a Zika virus.
Two cases of Zika Virus have been confirmed in MIami-Dade, officials with the Florida Department of Health said.
– There isn’t a vaccine to prevent it and there aren’t any medicines to treat it.
Dr. Sarah Park, the Hawaii state epidemiologist, said Tuesday the mother no longer had the virus when she arrived in Hawaii and the baby no longer had it at the time of birth.
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“It’s a virus that causes problems with fevers, muscle aches, sometimes headaches, chills, pink eye”, said Dr. Karpovs.
