“Zika virus can not be transmitted through casual contact”, said Dr. Loren K. Robinson of the state Department of Health, who said there are no confirmed cases in the state. Among them are 2,116 pregnant women.
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In the United States, a total of 31 cases of Zika have been documented since a year ago, all involving people who were infected while they were out of the country. Outbreaks have occurred in Africa, Southeast Asia, South America and the Pacific Islands.
The Illinois Department of Public Health previously reported two pregnant women tested positive for the mosquito-borne virus after traveling in Honduras and Haiti.
The effort against the disease focuses on protecting people from mosquitoes and reducing mosquito populations.
The World Health Organization has detailed information on Zika and Pregnancy, which can be found here.
The current Zika outbreak in northeastern Brazil has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in the number of babies born with microcephaly.
Pregnant women need to be especially careful, babies of mothers infected with Zika virus could be born with abnormally small heads and incomplete brain development – called microcephaly. This mosquito also carries the viruses that cause Dengue and Chikungunya which are of great public health concern in tropical countries like India.
The CDC says that the Zika Virus will continue to spread and it will be hard determine how it will spread over time.
In most people the Zika virus produces no symptoms at all.
The disease is like malaria, and West Nile virus: it is only transmitted via mosquito bites, and in the case of the Zika virus, the type of mosquito that transmits it does not live in Canada. The virus is said to be carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. “Pregnant women, as well as women who wish to become pregnant and who are planning to travel to areas where the virus is circulating, should discuss their plans with a health professional”.
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“An estimated 80 per cent of people infected have no symptoms”.
