“We certainly have aedes aegypti mosquitoes in Houston, and we’re encouraging people to reduce the breeding opportunities around their homes and to protect themselves”, says Barton.
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Thousands of Zika prevention kits, which include bug spray, information and condoms, have already been passed out around U.S. Island territories, and while they don’t believe the continental United States faces the same risk of an epidemic, the mosquito that carries Zika is more common than they first thought.
“Everything we look at with this virus seems to be a bit scarier than we originally thought”, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC.
“However, our study may shed light on possible lingering effects the virus may be associated with in the brain”, Ferreira said. “We’re taking this very seriously”.The CDC’s update has Bay State doctors cautioning pregnant women and those who plan on conceiving in the near future against visiting countries where the virus is erupting, including Brazil, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
“I think it was just last week that the World Health Organization said “Yeah, we do have a link between Guillain-Barre and Zika”, which before they were still researching”, says Nancy Nydam with the Georgia Department of Public Health.
Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health said he’s “not an alarmist”, but cited recent discoveries about how destructive Zika appears to be to fetal brains.
President Barack Obama’s asked Congress for $1.9 billion to help develop vaccines against Zika, search for better tests and drugs, to help people defeat the mosquitoes that spread it, and to study and support babies born with defects caused by infection during pregnancy.
Meanwhile the government has used the money remaining from the Ebola virus fund which amounted to $589 million. There also are reports of rare neurologic problems in adults, too.
Women in Brazil were urged to postpone pregnancies owing to the spread of the Zika virsu through Latin America and the Caribbean.
Now what leaders say they need is money.
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Meanwhile, ABC Chicago reported that there are now 10 cases of Zika virus in IL, and two of which are pregnant women.
