Bay County Mosquito Control is on the lookout this year for the Zika virus, after U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention warnings about the mosquito-borne menace. But that side effect had never been linked to this particular virus before, and at that point, nobody could say for certain that Zika was definitely to blame.
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Researchers still don’t have some of the evidence they would like.
The New England Journal of Medicine is rushing a special report to publication tonight because they believe that Americans are not taking the virus seriously enough.
“We’ve been very careful over the last few months to say, ‘It’s linked to, it’s associated with, ‘ – we’ve been careful to say it’s not the cause of”, said the CDC’s Director, division of Public Health Information and Dissemination, Sonja A Rasmussen.
“We do expect that that’s likely to be the tip of the iceberg”, Rasumussen said. But that does not mean all women infected with Zika will give birth to babies with brain damage. Frieden said it’s like putting a puzzle together.
Efforts to control the spread of the virus focus on eliminating mosquito breeding sites and taking precautions against mosquito bites such as using insect repellent and mosquito nets.
“There is no longer any doubt that Zika causes microcephaly”, Frieden said in an interview with reporters.
Infected pregnant women in South America have also experienced miscarriages, stillbirths, and other complications to their pregnancies.
Scientists have a number of unanswered questions about Zika.
Severe fetal abnormalities from the Zika virus were confirmed by federal officials on April 13, 2016. Another outstanding question: Does the stage of pregnancy at the time of infection impact the risk or outcome? They also discovered more direct evidence in the form of the virus or its genetic traces.
Zika has been related to a surge in babies born with small heads in Brazil. Three babies have been born, one with a brain defect.
“The CDC is the scientific gold standard”, said Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University.
This does not change any of the recommendations or guidance previously issued by the CDC. The virus now is being transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in more than three dozen countries and territories in Latin America and the Caribbean. Make sure you wear long sleeved shirt, long trousers and use some type of insect repellent.
The cases of microcephaly caused by Zika appear to be unusually severe, Rasmussen said.
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Earlier in the day, the White House said President Barack Obama will sign a bill that offers incentives to companies working on Zika treatments and vaccines. “An umbrella might come in handy, but it’s going to be insufficient to ensure that communities all across the country are protected from a potentially significant impact”.
