The virus has been linked to a recent surge in birth defects including microcephaly, a rare condition in which newborns have smaller than normal heads and their brains do not develop properly.
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The United States has reported its first case of a newborn suffering from brain damage linked to the mosquito-borne Zika virus that has caused birth defects in Latin America.
This 2006 photo provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a female Aedes aegypti mosquito in the process of acquiring a blood meal from a human host.
Most people infected with Zika virus don’t become ill.
Out of an abundance of caution, pregnant women advised to consider postponing travel to areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing. Brazil has been experiencing a huge Zika virus infection that began last May, and has seen a startling increase in infants born with microcephaly.
In Brazil, more than 3,500 cases of microcephaly were recorded between October and January, just as the Zika epidemic was spreading.
The mother was probably infected with the virus early in her pregnancy while living in Brazil in May 2015 and transmitted it to the fetus, the health department said.
The countries and territories that are included in the CDC alert are Venezuela, Brazil, the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Colombia, Suriname, El Salvador, Paraguay, French Guiana, Panama, Mexico, Guatemala, Martinique, Honduras, and Haiti. In December, Puerto Rico reported its first confirmed case in someone who had not recently traveled, meaning they caught it from a mosquito on the island. According to the CDC, there have, so far, not been any treatments or preventive vaccines developed to combat the Zika virus.
It is also not known whether the virus alone causes microcephaly or if it happens only if the mother has a previous infection, such as with dengue virus.
Scientists do not know how the Zika virus damages fetal brains. “Neither the baby nor the mother are infectious, and there was never a risk of transmission in Hawaii”, the health department said.
“We are saddened by the events that have affected this mother and her newborn”, Dr. Sarah Park, Hawaii’s state epidemiologist, said in a statement.
The Zika virus has been around since 1947 and is rarely fatal in adults.
The CDC has said the virus is likely to come to the United States.
For that reason, the United States has followed the actions of Canada, which last week issued a health advisory urging travelers to guard against mosquito bites when visiting the countries where Zika is present.
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.
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Nevertheless, Hawaii is undergoing an outbreak of dengue fever, and the same mosquitoes that transmit it also can transmit Zika.
