Dr. Theresa Tam, the deputy Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, said the one-month deferral period was chosen because it’s believed that humans clear their bodies of the virus fairly quickly after infection.
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– The WHO said Zika cases have been reported in 23 countries and territories in the Americas in the current outbreak. The World Health Organization predicts there could be up to four million cases over the next year.
She is already being tested. A small number of cases have occurred through sexual transmission or by transmission from mother to fetus via the placenta.
Denmark and Switzerland joined a growing number of European countries to report Zika infections among travelers returning from Latin America.
The CDC has issued a travel alert for more than 20 countries including Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela. More than 220,000 soldiers have been mobilized to pass out leaflets and help spray for mosquitoes. “But, pregant women or women who are trying to get pregnant should consider postponing to places where the disease is being spread”.
There have been 31 cases in the United States in 11 states.
Some 80% of those infected with the Zika virus don’t even feel sick, and most who do have relatively mild symptoms such as a fever, rash, joint pain or pink eye.
Another Harris County case was confirmed earlier this month in a patient who had also traveled to Latin America.
While the mosquito that carries the virus, Aedes aegypti, is common in South Florida, Schuchat said several factors in the United States work in our favor: US urban areas are less densely populated, air-conditioning is more widespread and mosquito control efforts are generally stronger.
“Just walk around your own house and look for any container holding water for any length of time”. Two were in Miami-Dade from people who brought the disease back from Colombia.
The speed of the US response is also in question. Officials said the CDC and Customs and Border Protection were assessing the situation to determine what, if any, measures should be taken.
Health authorities began to suspect a connection between Zika and neurological ailments, especially in fetuses and newborns. The virus also has been found in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
She said it was an overabundance of caution but that it was better to be safe because officials didn’t yet know all the risks.
Chan has called an emergency committee meeting Monday in Geneva, Switzerland, to address the Zika virus’ spread and its ramifications.
But Aldighieri noted that the vast majority of those cases will be asymptomatic.
“In this response, this team is actually much larger and is in many ways the focal point of the activities”, Tracee Treadwell, who is helping to lead the CDC’s Zika response, said in an interview.
The Zika virus originates from and is mainly transmitted through mosquitoes.
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The level of alarm is extremely high.
