While mosquitoes can transmit a variety of diseases, Zika has become the main concern of state and federal health officials, in part, because there are still many unknowns about the virus.
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According to the VDH website, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined last week that the Zika virus is a cause of microcephaly and other severe fatal brain defects. About 30 states inside the USA have been found to harbor the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is a carrier of the Zika virus.
“It’s frightening me”, Lucey said of the virus overseas, which causes birth defects in the children of mothers who were infected during the first trimester of their pregnancies.
The Zika virus is primarily spread through bites from infected mosquitoes. The United States now counts 800 cases of the virus in 40 different states within its borders as well as US territories, including in 89 pregnant women. Pregnant woman should also avoid travel to these countries.
“Globally, we predict that over 2.17 billion people live in areas that are environmentally suitable for Zika virus transmission”, they wrote.
A Zika virus vaccine is in the works and testing will begin in September. Cases in the mainland U.S. are still associated with travel to areas where the virus has spread or sex with infected individuals, although islands to the south, including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa, have had locally acquired cases.
And, just days ago, the virus was detected in two pregnant women in British Columbia. Finally, despite the fact that Zika virus has been around since 1947, it has only inflicted widespread injury in the current 2015-2016 outbreak, centered mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean.
DeLauro said she asked her GOP colleagues as recently as Tuesday to hold public hearings on Zika funding but said they have refused.
Mosquitoes are usually active in OH from May through October.
“We will spare no effort to protect pregnant New Yorkers from the devastating consequences of Zika, and we ask New Yorkers to help us by taking simple steps to get rid of standing water where mosquitoes can breed”, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
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Experts predict about five million births in the Americas alone will happen in areas that are at risk for Zika over the next year. “We were fully prepared for this first case”, said Director of Health Nicole Alexander-Scott, MD, MPH. Indeed, the study notes that other researchers were unable to detect Zika virus in any mosquitoes during a 2007 outbreak in Micronesia, despite widespread “active surveillance”.
