The World Health Organization believes it will spread to all countries in the region except for Canada and continental Chile.
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There have been no reports of the virus is being transmitted from mosquitoes to people in the US, though officials are concerned that small outbreaks could happen as the weather warms.
Most infected people have no symptoms and if they do they are very mild. The race is on to develop a Zika vaccine.
Zika first made global headlines in January after it was linked to the almost 4,000 babies who were born in Brazil in the past year with unusually small heads, an incurable condition known as microcephaly. Healthcare officials have also reported a 20-fold increase in incidence of microcephaly. It can cause devastating brain damage and can result in miscarriage or stillbirth. GBS can be fatal if the weakness extends into the breathing muscles.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says there are no approved tests for routine screening of blood donations for Zika virus, but it is looking into the issue. So much so, that the World Health Organisation (WHO) released a statement this week declaring a public health emergency of global concern. “Zika is not life-threatening like dengue and chikungunya, and it is a self-remitting disease, so – at this point – there is nothing to panic about”, says Dr Shelly Singh, senior consultant, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Primus Hospital, Delhi.
This is an Aedes mosquito.
The sambo fish (sometimes called zambo fish) are being distributed by volunteers in restaurants, schools, and other areas that keep open barrels and other structures used for collecting water where mosquitoes are likely to lay their eggs. Moreover the disease transmission can be effectively contained through relatively simple methods.
The virus, which is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, is strongly suspected to be linked to a new wave of microcephaly cases in Brazil.
Potential blood donors who had visited Mexico, the Caribbean, or Central or South America in the past month should delay their blood donation an additional 28 days, the Red Cross requested. Kading’s research once took her to the Zika forest in Uganda.
So far, 404 cases have been confirmed in the country to be related to the virus, which has caused 76 infant deaths both during pregnancy and right after. The first case of the Zika virus in the Americas was recorded in February of 2014 on Easter Island.
Poor countries in the Americas have also quietly asked for aid to pay for mass overhead spraying as part of mosquito-eradication efforts-similar to those carried out in the mid-20th century.
Silverman: Zika can affect women who are not pregnant, though in many cases they will have no symptoms and the virus appears to not be present in the bloodstream after two to three weeks. Public health workers are fumigating with a variety of pesticides to kill off and control mosquitos, trying to stay ahead of infections and protect the population.
The hotspots for this Zika outbreak also have been temperature and drought hotspots recently.
Zika thrives in impoverished areas, spreading widely in garbage-filled neighborhoods and in homes and apartments with no screens on the windows, conditions that are present in many Gulf Coast communities in the United States, Hotez said. Dr Brian Levine, a New York City fertility doctor, “spent the majority of the last week counselling patients about (the) Zika virus”.
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The Aedes aegypti mosquito that carries Zika also transmits dengue fever.
