But, for most other people the virus offers little threat – approximately 80 percent of people who become infected never experience symptoms.
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As the mosquito- borne virus continues to spread predominantly in Central and South America, the health ministry here has said that all domestic medical facilities are to report any cases diagnosed to the ministry.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) Pregnant women in NY whose sexual partners have recently traveled to countries impacted by the Zika virus can now get free tests for the infection. The CDC now recommends that pregnant women avoid travel to areas that have Zika virus and are less than 6,500 feet below sea level. To help stop the spread of Zika, all travelers should use insect repellent for three weeks after travel to prevent mosquito bites.
The Zika virus has now spread to over 32 countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean.
US efforts are underway to develop a vaccine, come up with new technologies to control mosquitoes and monitor and protect pregnant women and their babies.
The KDHE says the person developed an illness consistent with Zika virus infection and was tested per guidance from CDC and KDHE.
“We’re going to step up our approach and ask everybody to be thinking about that with the warmer weather coming up”, he said. “It’s really important that we get that information, so we can go out and investigate, maybe set some traps and see what we’re getting”, Brochart said.
A pregnant woman infected with Zika virus can pass the virus to her unborn baby. Zika is not known to be circulating in the mosquito population in Kentucky – or any other part of the United States.
The CDC is also trying to find an effective insecticide because “we are finding a wide resistance to some insecticides”, Frieden said. Of course, the much-dreaded complication is the microcephaly or very small brain in infants born to mothers who contracted the disease during pregnancy.
The cost of caring for one child with birth defects can be $10 million or more, Frieden said.
The CDC’s Fort Collins division, which studies vector-borne diseases, is now entirely focused on Zika, Frieden said, meaning that work on other pathogens has been put on the back burner.
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Without new funding, it’s hard to plan for mosquito control operations in Puerto Rico or to do surveillance needed to figure out where in the U.S. mosquitoes that can transmit Zika virus are found.
