In addition to the illness associated with the virus, there is great concern about the virus’ potential effect in pregnant women as there is mounting evidence of a link to microcephaly, a congenital condition associated with incomplete brain development in infants.
Advertisement
Zika virus has been linked to a rise in birth abnormalities in Brazil and could spread to all but two countries in the Americas, the World Health Organization announced earlier this week.
The alarming disease is transmitted via mosquito bites, and it is spreading in affected regions at a unsafe rate.
In the past year, the virus “exploded”, said Weaver, sweeping through the Caribbean and Latin America, “infecting probably a couple of million people”.
A vaccine for the devastating Zika virus could be as long as 10 years away, a group of USA scientists have said. Denmark has also had a confirmed case of a tourist who was infected after travel in South and Central America, the Daily Beast reports. The most readily apparent symptoms of the virus are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes), but the Zika virus is very mild, lasting a week at the most, and hospitalization is rarely required.
“Other than that it’s not really a severe virus”, Smith said.
Most Louisiana residents live in air conditioned home, their windows have screens, and there are robust municipal mosquito control programs or bug sprays that help keep down the population of the insect.
“If a case of Zika virus infection is detected in Singapore, vector control operations will be stepped up to prevent further transmission of Zika virus infection”. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in water where the larvae develop and need only about 1/2 inch of water to breed.
The Centers for Disease Control issued a travel advisory last week recommending pregnant women avoid visiting countries like Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, where the virus is most prevalent.
“The whole world needs to be on high alert now”, Dr. Rocha said.
“We want to make sure that we stress and emphasize that women who are pregnant or are thinking about becoming pregnant…delay their travels to any country where Zika transmission is now happening”, Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Herminia Palacio said. “We still don’t know what other proportions it could take”.
The kind of broad scale aerial spraying that has been used in previous decades for invasive fly pests is not well suited to mosquito eradication, Fujioka said, and he would not expect to see that done for Aedes mosquitoes – even if the local population were to become infected.
Advertisement
“It just adds to the level of concern for this mosquito, and another reason to control it”, Fujioka said.
