The post CDC issues travel advisory as Zika virus spreads to Cuba appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
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The Florida Department of Health reported Thursday another case of the Zika virus has been confirmed in Brevard County. While the virus is spread through bites from a specific mosquito, there have been increasing reports of sexually transmitted cases. The department said the person has been seen by a physician and is recovering.
The Zika virus is now being transmitted from mosquitoes to people in Cuba, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday, marking another advance in a worrying epidemic that has been linked to a wide range of birth defects and neurological disorders.
A Cuban military reservist fumigates inside a home as part of the preventive measures against the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases in Havana on the outskirts of Cuba, March 16, 2016.
At a press conference Friday afternoon, the ministry said the new cases were detected in Greater Portmore and Christian Pen in St. Catherine and one in Lyssons St. Thomas.
“The main health concern is primarily for pregnant women”, Cuomo said at a news conference.
Because the man contracted the virus in Central America, and no mosquitoes here in New Mexico have tested positive for carrying it, there is no reason for residents to panic. The defects included microcephaly, a brutal condition in which babies are born with unusually small heads and incomplete brain development. Most cases of Zika have been found in Brazil and other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. More than 90% of patients who sought testing had symptoms such as aches, fever, and a rash. Aside from the lack of a medication to treat Zika viral infection, there is no vaccine to prevent it.
The state plans to give out 20,000 Zika protection kits to pregnant women – with larvicide tablets, insect repellent, and condoms.
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The DoH reminded the public to be careful and continue to clean their surroundings which could be nests of mosquitos which carry the Zika virus, Coloma also said. All 66 Florida cases were caught while traveling to places with the outbreak or by having sex with a traveler.
