All of them have a history of recent travel to an area with a Zika outbreak and have symptoms consistent with the disease, said Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, deputy chief for Acute Communicable Disease Control at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
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The World Health Organization has declared an worldwide emergency and launched a global Zika virus response unit. One mosquito species that transmits Zika and other viruses, Aedes albopictus (also known by the more formidable name of the Asian tiger mosquito), probably arrived in the U.S.in the 1980s in shipments of old tires from Asia.
A worrisome development intensified concerns this week when health officials in Dallas County, Texas, reported what appears to be the first Zika case in the US transmitted through sexual contact.
Department of Public Health has asked hospital administration to inform clinicians to verify travel history of people with symptoms similar to dengue. These small measures and efforts will go a long way in preventing the spread of risky Zika virus. The zika virus is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is well-adapted to humans, thrives in people’s homes and can breed in even a bottle cap’s-worth of stagnant water.
“This is not a life threatening infection, and this infection is not transmitted by mosquitoes in the U.S.”, Ali said.
Marisol Touraine told reporters Wednesday that Martinique and French Guiana have had 2,500 potential cases and about 100 confirmed Zika cases since mid-December, including 20 pregnant women and two people suffering a temporary paralysis condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Although the symptoms of the virus are relatively mild and only 1 in 5 persons exposed to it become ill, those who are experiencing fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (pink eye) have been strongly advised to seek immediate medical care.
Zika is not typically lethal in adults but is linked to birth defects, making the virus particularly unsafe for pregnant women. “Symptoms typically last a couple of days, up to a week”.
Florida is the third most populous state in the United States.
“It’s a concern of everyone”, said Guadalupe Monge, a travel agent with Miami-based Costamar travel agency.
The current Zika epidemic is on track to cause millions of infections in Latin America and the Caribbean, but no transmission was reported in the United States until the Dallas case this week.
For now, the most important action in infected areas was to try to control mosquitoes and for people to wear adequate clothing, use insect repellent and sleep under bed nets, he said.
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The case was uncovered in Texas, where the patient had sex with someone who had recently returned from South America and tested positive for the mosquito borne illness.
