Local media said Saturday that the three cases are believed to be the first to be confirmed in the country, but no more details of their current conditions have been published. It is uncommon for people infected with Zika to need hospital treatment.
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Last week the agency urged pregnant women and women considering becoming pregnant to postpone visits to Puerto Rico, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela.
Since last May, the virus carried by mosquitoes has centralized in South America and Central America.
The mosquito-borne Zika virus is increasing its spread in the Caribbean and Latin America, with the Centers for Disease Control on Friday adding eight more countries to its travel-advisory list – that makes 22 countries total where pregnant women are being advised to reconsider travel.
Women in El Salvador should wait until 2018 before getting pregnant, the deputy health minister Eduardo Espinoza said, while Jamaica has asked women to avoid pregnancy for 6 to 12 months.
Colombia’s health ministry says Zika has already infected 13,500 people across the country and there could be as many as 700,000 cases this year.
There is no vaccine for the virus, which can cause fever, rashes, joint pains, and conjunctivitis within days of being contracted.
As the number of infections with the Zika virus continue to rise, more countries have issued warnings regarding pregnancies.
If it will be necessary for you to travel to South America, Central America, and/or the Caribbean, caution should be taken to avoid mosquito bites, especially if you are pregnant. Researchers have yet to weigh in on a connection between symptomless pregnant women with Zika and infant microcephaly, but there is still an elevated risk.
This 2003 photo provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a female Aedes albopictus mosquito acquiring a blood meal from a human host.
Beyond the possible problems for pregnant women and their babies, it appears that anyone who catches Zika can later develop Guillain-Burre Syndrome, which is a progressive paralysis that starts in the legs and can be life threatening.
Brazilian officials too have said they’re investigating a link between Guillain-Barre and Zika. Could the birth defect be linked to instances of Zika in the mother when she was pregnant?
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Microcephaly can be caused by a range of factors and two other babies were found to have other causes of their microcephaly – one had a virus called cytomegalovirus, and the other had a genetic disorder that can cause the condition.
