Meanwhile, new details about the possible effects of the Zika virus on the fetal brain emerged Wednesday, as US health officials say mosquito eradication here and overseas is key to protecting pregnant women until they can develop a vaccine.
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The South American country has suffered the most cases of Zika in the current outbreak, with 1.5 million people infected since early 2015.
Brazil, the location of one of the highest concentrations of Zika, is set to host the Olympics this summer.
Bohan added: “I’m glad we have the monitoring program set up”.
But if they already did, the CDC is telling doctors to test the women for Zika between two weeks and 12 weeks after they return.
Thirty-one countries and territories around the world are experiencing local transmission of the virus, according to the CDC and the World Health Organization.
The virus is carried by the Aedes species of mosquitoes. It was the first case of sexually transmitted Zika virus in the United States.
The State Department, which has taken the lead on engaging with foreign governments facing the Zika threat, has established a Zika coordination team and a broader working group, said John Kirby, a State Department spokesman. He cautioned that full-fledged availability of a vaccine against the mosquito-borne virus would take longer.
“Mosquito control is absolutely essential for this particular issue, and that means not only what we can do through our mosquito control boards and various spraying and larvicidal activity, but it means some individual ownership of the issue”.
So far seven people have been tested for the virus here in SC. “If the Olympics were today, I would not go”, she said.
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Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said later Thursday that the House would act on the Zika spending request, though he said Republicans would search for spending cuts elsewhere in the budget to cover the cost and would “scrub” it for unnecessary items. With Zika virus now spreading rampantly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is telling expectant mothers and women planning to get pregnant – to avoid travel to 30 destinations in Latin America, including lots of popular Caribbean islands. “We learned important lessons about how best to put this kind of coordination mechanism in place” during last year’s Ebola outbreak, he said. When announcing that there are now 16 confirmed Zika cases in Florida, Surgeon General Dr. John Armstrong assured that “all cases are travel related” and none involve pregnant women.
