A pregnant woman from Missouri who traveled to Nicaragua is the fourth resident from the state to contract the Zika virus overseas, state health officials said today.
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“It is now clear that the Zika virus can cause serious complications, and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the current outbreak a public health emergency of worldwide concern”, Institut Pasteur president Christian Brechot told AFP by email.
“Prevention is the key for pregnant women”, said Dr. Heather Bell, medical director for infection, prevention and epidemiology with St. John Health System.
Zika is usually transmitted via a bite from the Aedes mosquito, but there has been a confirmed case of sexual transmission, while birth defects from Zika have been confirmed in their thousands. Of those, 33 were pregnant women and another 8 were sexually transmitted. Symptoms include mild fever, a rash, and conjunctivitis, which last for a few days. Babies with microcephaly will have smaller head sizes and their brains may not develop properly.
DHEC officials will rely on local health care providers to recognize the symptoms in patients and report suspected cases to DHEC to test for the virus.
“We recommend employers provide insect repellent with EPA active ingredients and encourage workers to use it”, said Jill Shugart, a senior environmental health specialist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who also recommends that employers encourage staff to wear clothing that covers any exposed skin to reduce the chances of a mosquito bite.
“For San Franciscans considering travel to Zika affected areas, we urge pregnant women to postpone their plans if possible and advise every traveler to take mosquito precautions”.
The positive test announcement came exactly five weeks after the DPH reported the first case of Zika in CT. We’ve got the type of mosquitoes that carry the virus here, but they carry other viruses as well. For now, that basically means people who have traveled to or lived in Latin America or the Caribbean.
Players from the Miami Marlins and Pittsburgh Pirates have expressed concerns about their two-game series next month in Puerto Rico because of the Zika virus. There have been no reported cases of Zika virus contracted from a mosquito bite in Missouri.
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The study revealed Zika causes the brains of unborn foetuses to shrink by attacking the cells responsible for brain growth and gradually turning them into “virus factories”. The Aedes aegypti mosquito is expected to be the primary carrier in the United States. The legislation puts the Zika virus-a mosquito-borne illness that is spreading throughout South and Central America-to the Food and Drug Administration’s priority review voucher program in order to jump-start the development of treatments for tropical diseases.
