“A pregnant woman was infected by Zika and dengue and the foetus has shown various defects”, it said in a statement. As of May 4, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been 472 travel-related cases reported nationally.
Advertisement
The state Department of Public Heath says the latest patient is a woman in her 30s. Zika is rarely life-threatening, and the vast majority of people who become infected do not get sick enough to warrant hospitalization. This guide action involves extensive monitoring of these pregnant women, but also their babies after birth.
Fourteen pregnant women have contracted the virus, and six babies who were infected with Zika were born with malformations, including the microcephaly cases, the health ministry said. In addition to Catalonia, cases have been reported in Madrid (27), Aragon (10) and Castilla and Leon (9).
Zika virus disease is caused by a virus transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitoes. And doctors in Brazil are also suspecting that the Zika virus is responsible for cases of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), a temporary disorder similar to multiple sclerosis, where the protective myelin sheath surrounding neurons in the brain and spinal cord is damaged.
“Based on our experience with chikungunya and dengue spread in the continental USA, we expect that if that model holds for Zika, that there would likely be fairly limited local transmission, but we don’t know how much transmission there will be”, said Dr. Margaret Honein, chief of the birth defects branch of the CDC. More, WHO declared the outbreak is a public health emergency of worldwide level. Following the briefing, CDC Foundation President and CEO Judith A. Monroe, M.D., FAAFP, wrote to attendees, “We hope you agree the Zika outbreak represents an urgent public health threat and resources are essential to address it”. The World Bank estimates that the economic impact in Latin America and the Caribbean is likely to reach $3.5 billion this year. Outbreaks of those bugs in the United States have been limited.
Advertisement
The study states that the method of infecting the mosquitoes with Wolbachia will involve inserting the bacteria into mosquito eggs, which then pass the bacteria along to the offspring.
