The types of mosquitoes that carry Zika do not live in our region and never have.
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“If we found it in Champaign County, that would be very informative for the entire mid-part of the state and the south”, she said. And with three to four million persons at risk of contracting the virulent Zika virus, global health experts hold an emergency meeting tomorrow, after reports suggest it could spread “explosively”.
It causes mild fever, rash, muscle pain, joint pain, headache, pain behind the eyes and conjunctivitis.
US President Barack Obama spoke with his Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff to discuss shared concerns over the recent spread of the Zika virus in the Western Hemisphere.
Earlier figures from the health ministry showed 560 pregnant women had the disease, out of more than 13,500 infections.
Zika virus, first detected in Uganda’s Zika forest in 1947, is transmitted to humans through the “Aedes mosquito” which is also the main carrier of dengue fever.
In the United States, a total of 31 cases of Zika have been documented since previous year, all involving people who were infected while they were out of the country.
Zika has been linked to a rise in cases of microcephaly in babies born to infected women in Brazil.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare on Friday also included the Zika virus among the group of infectious diseases recognized and monitored as potential health threats.
The best prevention is to take precautions to avoid getting a mosquito bite.
The Zika virus crisis continues to bounce around the globe with no known Zika vaccine or cure once infected.
No treatment or vaccine is available. Pregnant women are being urged not to travel to those countries and women who live in those areas are being told not to get pregnant. On April 30, a laboratory at the Federal University of Bahia, also in Brazil’s northeast, said it had identified the presence of Zika in samples from one patient.
Health officials have worked to raise public awareness about ways to prevent infections, including by using insect repellents and wearing protective clothing.
Taylor explained that while mosquitoes are the main source of transmission, the virus could be passed from mother to child.
“We have had some patients who have said, ‘ok I’m actually going to defer when I was about to come, to come maybe a month or two further down with the knowledge that it will be further into the dry season and perhaps by then more information will be known'”. “There are so many other viral possibilities and Zika had never been seen in this hemisphere. Make sure there is no stagnant water where mosquitoes can breed”, Quezon said.
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But while there’s no vaccine against Zika, inoculating yourself against rumor and fear-mongering is just as important.
