Canada’s Public Health Agency confirms there are four cases of the Zika virus in Canada.
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In a statement, the commission warned of the risk of imported Zika cases, even though no case has been reported in China.
“In Quebec, there has been one laboratory-confirmed case in a person who traveled outside the country”, Dr. Horacio Arruda, director of the province’s Public Health Department, said in a statement.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Zika virus outbreaks have occurred in areas of Africa, southeast Asia, South America and the Pacific Islands.
The Zika virus crisis continues to bounce around the globe with no known Zika vaccine or cure once infected. In Brazil, an outbreak of Zika cases in expectant mothers over the last several months has coincided with almost 4,000 potential cases of microcephaly, which is a congenital condition associated with incomplete brain development.
The most common symptoms of Zika are fevers, rashes, joint pain and conjunctivitis.
But the virus can be very serious for women of child-bearing age.
Transat says pregnant women with a medical note can reschedule or change destinations if they were booked to fly to countries that have been listed by the Pan American Health Organization as having the virus.
“We were anxious, we were traveling to see our relatives and my wife is also pregnant”, said Alanis Cunah.
Health Canada also says the best way to avoid the virus is to avoid getting bitten by a mosquito. “What they’ve found is that the Zika virus is present in babies that are born with microcephaly, which is an abnormally small head or other brain malfunctions”. The virus has been transmitted in 21 countries so far.
The CDC recommends pregnant women in any trimester should consider postponing travel to the areas where the Zika virus transmission is ongoing.
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About 1.5 million Zika infections have been reported in Brazil, and 63.6 percent of those cases were women.
