The first is a “DNA-based vaccine using a strategy very similar to what we employed for another flavivirus, the West Nile virus”, he told reporters.
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The Zika virus is “spreading explosively” in the Americas and can infect upto four million people, the World Health Organization warned yesterday as it issued a warning to all countries, including India.
Most people who contract Zika won’t feel symptoms at all.
The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, or conjunctivitis (red eyes).
Neither of the two types of mosquitoes believed capable of spreading the Zika virus lives in Washington state or any of its neighbors, so state residents’ biggest risk of contracting it remains infection during travel elsewhere, a state entomologist said Thursday.
Brazil has reported 4,180 cases of microcephaly since October, prompting the World Health Organization to hold an emergency meeting on Monday to decide whether the situation warrants declaring a public health emergency. Those are cases from people who travelled outside of the country. PAHO has mobilized staff and members of the Global Outbreak and Response Network (GOARN) to assist ministries of health in strengthening their abilities to detect the arrival and circulation of Zika virus through laboratory testing and rapid reporting.
It is spread from one person to another when a female Aedes mosquito feeds on a host, thus injecting the virus into his skin.
Colombia and Venezuela are both reporting a jump in cases of a rare, sometimes paralyzing syndrome that may be linked to the Zika virus.
Taylor says there is little to no risk of contracting the virus in Canada since mosquitoes that transmit the virus are not adaptable to the climate. “In a word, a mosquito is not a worthy opponent to a united country that has realized the threat”, she said.
South Korea designated the Zika virus as a legal infectious disease that can pose public health problems, the government said Friday.
But the mosquito species that carries Zika – the Aedes mosquito – has been found in Utah before, according to Davis County Mosquito Abatement Director Gary Hatch. Later in the day a case was reported in MA, where a man had fallen ill.
Zika is strongly suspected of causing a severe birth defect called microcephaly, which causes underdevelopment of the head and brain.
Little is known about the disease, and right now only government health agencies can diagnose it. While research continues, the CDC urges women in any stage of their pregnancy to reconsider travel plans to those countries.
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The blood samples, which had been frozen, were re-tested and came back positive for Zika, suggesting that the wife was infected by her husband since none of the mosquitoes that carry Zika were present in Colorado. “So till such time that diagnostic facilities are available, best option is mosquito control measures to prevent mosquito breeding”, she added.
