“There are more than 1,000 Americans – including more than 100 pregnant women – with confirmed cases of Zika, but House Republicans continue to dawdle in the face of this frightening threat”, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said Tuesday.
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The Aedes mosquitoes that transmit the virus have not been detected in either Sonoma or Marin, according to health officials for both counties.
Following reports that local mosquito transmission of zika virus infection has been reported in Saint Barthelemy (St Barts), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday posted a zika virus travel notice for the island. The disease was contracted by an individual who was in Central America recently. Partners of pregnant women should also be aware that the virus can be sexually transmitted, which is why health officials are advising men to abstain or use contraception for six months if they have been exposed and don’t want to pass it on.
Right now, the people at risk of getting infected are those who travel to one of the over 40 countries with ongoing Zika virus transmission.
“They typically have fever, achy joints, they may have a rash, and some have red eyes like pink eye”, she said.
According to the California Department of Public Health, there have been 45 cases of Zika in the state (.pdf) as of May 6. But Zika virus is found to disappear from blood in about five days, which means blood tests from suspected victims may appear negative.
There are fears that Rubio’s home state of Florida could be the first place in the continental United States to get hit hard by Zika because of its tropical climate. The virus is spreading rapidly in Latin America, while Thailand and the Philippines are the most Zika-infected countries in Asia.
Georgia has seen 13 Zika cases so far that were all travel-related.
Unborn babies may be at risk if a woman is infected with Zika while pregnant.
The program is created to raise awareness regarding initiatives to eliminate mosquito-breeding sites and prevent mosquito-borne diseases. There are 472 confirmed Zika cases across the U.S.as of May 4, with a total of 44 of the cases being pregnant women, according to the CDC.
One complication with diagnosing Zika-associated microcephaly is that Zika is frequently asymptomatic in mothers, Finkelstein said in the release.
The Zika virus strain circulating in Brazil was shown to be able to infect and cause damage to mice fetuses.
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On April 29, one person tested positive for Zika in SC. They showed that mouse fetuses injected with the Asian Zika virus that were carried to term displayed characteristic features of microcephaly.
