Symptoms of Zika may include fever, rash, conjunctivitis and joint pain. “The current risk of a widespread outbreak of Zika virus in China is low”.
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Dr. David Hughes said cases of pregnancy aside, the Zika virus usually results in a mild infection, and 80 percent of those infected often do not get serious symptoms. In women who were infected while pregnant, it is linked to a severe birth defect, microcephaly, in which the fetal head size is much smaller than normal. The virus was found in their placentas, according to a CDC spokesman, the Washington Post reported.
The Zika virus has spread quickly through Latin America.
Australian health authorities announced on Thursday that a pregnant woman in Queensland state has tested positive for Zika virus.
Scientists from thirty research institutions pledge to share all data and findings on the virus to hasten the fight against the outbreak that has threatened people across the world, especially in the Americas. And if Zika is anything like other viruses, there could be effects other than microcephaly that haven’t been documented yet, he said.
Castro said development of a vaccine could come as quickly as within one year, but said that another two years would likely be needed for any large-scale rollout of a successful vaccine.
“The main concern about Zika is does it actually cause these birth defects”, Leman said.
“What everybody would like us as public health officials to say is, now we’ve proved it. It’s not going to be like that”, Christopher Dye, WHO’s director of strategy, added at the briefing in Washington.
To try to confirm a link, researchers in Colombia are tracking what happens to pregnant women who have been infected with Zika, Marcos Espinal of the Pan American Health Organization told reporters at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Washington.
“Microcephaly has been occurring in Brazil for years”.
And because in rare instances the virus may be transmitted sexually, officials are advising men who have traveled to affected regions to take steps to prevent the spread of the virus, such as by using condoms.
The U.S. blood supply is also being monitored closely.
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The CDC has issued a warning for pregnant women to avoid traveling to more than two dozen countries where Zika is now spreading. In response to concern about the Zika virus, state agencies and other key stakeholders have been alerted. The particular mosquito that carries the Zika virus usually bites during the day, but it is still a good idea to sleep under a mosquito net while you are in the affected area. Secondly, there have actually been no local transmission in the United States so far.
