Colombian health minister Alejandro Gaviria has said he believes three deaths are connected with Zika in the country.
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Q. Should pregnant Ontario women be anxious about the Zika virus.
The mosquitoes that transmit Zika are Aedes mosquitoes, most commonly Aedes aegypti, which are present in north Queensland and also transmit Dengue fever.
Guillain-Barre is a rare disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the nervous system.
Authorities in the country confirmed earlier this week that three people have died after contracting the virus.
“For any pregnant women who might have traveled to a geographical area where Zika virus transmission is occurring, and is either symptomatic or asymptomatic but suspected of having been infected, should contact their OBGYN for further evaluation”.
French scientists had already published research past year in the Journal of Clinical Virology that located the Zika virus in human saliva following an outbreak of the virus in 2013 and 2014 in French Polynesia. The most common symptoms of Zika virus are disease are a fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis. Nonetheless, the announcement amplified concern in Brazil with many people pointing out the possible impact to the annual Carnival celebration, which began yesterday.
The primary cause of global alarm has been the more than 10-fold increase of cases of microcephaly, which causes small skulls and brains in infants, in countries where the virus has infected many people.
The areas affected by Zika are mostly in South and Central America, as well as Thailand, Fiji and the Maldives, among others.
“There is not a single case of a baby with microcephaly coming from a woman who has Zika”, Santos told viewers.
Several travel-related cases have been reported in European Union countries in persons who travelled to affected countries but there has been no autochthonous (arising in that country) Zika virus transmission reported in the European Union and the risk of spread, including Malta, is low. Zika’s link to microcephaly, or head deformations in newborns, are circumstantial and not fully understood yet. El Salvador has advised women to avoid getting pregnant until 2018.
Sources: World Health Organisation (WHO), Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), Centers for Disease and Control Prevention (CDC), Colombian Ministry of Health, US Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center (NMCPHC).
“It’s certainly on my mind”, Newport Mayor David Stewart said when asked about the Zika virus.
In the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, officials declared a health emergency over Zika and confirmed a pregnant woman had been infected, bringing the number of cases on the island to 22.
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Unreported cases and patients with no symptoms of infection could mean that there are between 80,000 and 100,000 current Zika infections in Colombia, the government has said.
