Surveillance testing is now ongoing for those with symptoms of Zika and traveling to a Zika endemic area. Hopefully, this is another virus that nobody will have to worry about as they wait for Spring Break to travel to their favorite destinations. “It is also important to talk with your healthcare provider about travel if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant”. Over the next weeks, months and years, we will learn a great deal more about Zika. The study suggests that this new trap can help in cutting down the mosquito population by a significant number in wake of the rapid spread of Zika virus. “Based on early reports about the Zika virus, along with the sheer volume of passenger travel and commerce that occurs between Florida and Latin America, the virus” “explosive spread’ could further strain an already overburdened workforce at Florida’s airports, especially Miami International Airport”.
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Although there’s much unknown about the virus, researchers are finding that it is strongly associated with birth abnormalities.
“We’re doing everything we can to speed that up”, National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins told Senate appropriators on Thursday, though he said a vaccine probably won’t be generally available until 2018.
In the interim, the ministry of health reminded the public to adopt and maintain measures to reduce exposure to zika.
Those polled were split over the U.S.’s ability to respond to the virus, overall. Brazil is investigating almost 4,300 additional suspected cases of microcephaly.
That finding parallels what is seen in humans, Diamond says.
Pressed to say if locals should be given the option to abort the baby if it was confirmed that he/she had developed microcephaly, Gopeesingh said that was a debate that could not be resolved by religious ministers, judges or even the government but rather by the citizens. But it said airports should be sprayed to eliminate mosquitoes and their breeding grounds and authorities should consider “disinfection of aircraft”. The virus is primarily transmitted via infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, but it is also sexually transmitted. In addition to the travel restrictions, pregnant women are advised to practice safe sex or avoid sex with partners who have traveled to the affected areas.
Zika is a generally mild illness that includes common symptoms of fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes), lasting from several days to one week.
Since past year the virus has infected hundreds of thousands of people in almost 60 countries.
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While it has not been conclusively proven that Zika in pregnant women leads to their babies being born with microcephaly, there have been thousands of cases in Brazil and scientists have pointed to the probable link.
