Ms Hennesey stressed that the Zika virus poses no public health risk to anyone else as it is not present in Australian mosquitoes.
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Six out of 10 Americans aware of Zika said the virus concerned them, including 18 percent who said they were very concerned, according to the poll.
Brazil remains the most affected country, with estimates suggesting that somewhere between 440,000 to 1.3 million people have been infected since December.
To date local transmission of Zika infection has been identified in 30 countries and territories, including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Caribbean.
European researchers uncovered an extremely abnormal brain – not only a fraction of the proper size but lacking the usual crinkly neural folds – in a fetus whose mother suffered Zika symptoms at the end of the first trimester while she was living in Brazil.
World Health Organisation recently declared a world-wide health emergency with the disease already linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil, casting a shadow over the 2016 Rio Olympics.
A pregnant woman in Australia has tested positive for the Zika virus after traveling overseas – the second such case this week, health officials said Friday. It’s spread primarily through mosquitoes carrying the virus, but people with the illness can also contract it through sexual contact. “In Yolo, we don’t have the kind of mosquito that spreads that virus”. Women who are pregnant or planning a pregnancy should not visit these areas.
Baltimore City’s health commissioner said she is working with the state and the CDC to coordinate testing and prevention efforts – especially for pregnant women.
Symptoms may include fever, rash, conjunctivitis and joint pain, but not everyone will display symptoms, the CDC says.
“Pregnant women and their newborns are particularly vulnerable and need our help”, Buchanan said. Doctors are still investigating the possible link between Zika virus and microcephaly.
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His practice delivers babies, and some of its patients are members of the Plain community, many of whom travel to outbreak-affected countries for mission work. Asked by lawmakers, Frieden responded, “If this behaves as other viruses behave, there would be no risk to the next pregnancy after some period of a month or so, but we don’t know that for sure”.
