“This gives us more specific finding of the presence of genetic material of the virus”, CDC epidemiologist Marc Fischer said.
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Officials said they will monitor the two pregnant women throughout their pregnancy, checking for any signs of birth defects.
“The health effect of the Zika virus is likely to be more widespread than we now documented”.
Scott, who said his lobbying efforts would be joined by members of Florida’s mosquito control districts, suggested some of the additional funding could be used for mosquito control, testing kits and providing other resources if there is a significant outbreak of the disease.
The week included a town hall meeting with Hogan and other officials urging Marylanders to educate themselves about the virus and to take precautions against it. Such precautions include removing standing water (a common breeding ground for mosquitos) and not traveling to infected areas overseas, the Baltimore Sun reports.
Separate experiments by Dr. Michael Diamond of Washington University in St. Louis and a team of Chinese researchers also showed Zika was capable of damaging fetal brain cells.
In one of the experiments, the genetically modified mice lacked a molecule that plays a key role in the immune response to viral infections and thus led to the death of most of the foetuses. A pregnant woman can pass Zika virus to her fetus. The virus zeroed in on the placenta, creating viral levels 1,000 times higher in the placenta than in the mother’s blood, the researchers said. In the second model, genetically normal female mice received injections of an antibody that impaired their immune system.
In another model, they injected mice with antibodies against the same molecule and the effect of Zika infection was found to be less severe.
When these mice were born, they showed characteristic features of microcephaly, according to collaborators Zhiheng Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Cheng-Feng Qin of the Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology.
As mosquito season starts in the USA, local outbreaks are possible in areas where Aedes aegypti mosquitoes circulate.
Sara Mujica, who was recently diagnosed with the Zika virus said she has made a decision to keep her baby.
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The virus has also been linked to cases of a sometimes paralyzing neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome in some infected children and adults.
