The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services confirmed a seventh case of Zika virus Thursday in the state.
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Some babies have been born with no immediate signs of problems, according to the CDC’s Dr. Denise Jamieson, but she would not say how many.
“The Department of Health continues to be proactive in providing education on ways of prevention, free testing, free inspections (to include larvicide treatments), and free Zika prevention kits for pregnant women and individuals exhibiting symptoms”, said Health Commissioner Michelle Davis.
The gravest danger is to women who can get pregnant, but taxpayers will also feel the impact.
The Zika virus usually results in mild symptoms including fever, headache, rash and fatigue that last about a week. “They will reflect the outcomes of pregnancies reported with any laboratory evidence of possible Zika virus infection as of 12 noon every Thursday the week prior; numbers will be delayed one week”. She says only two total mosquitoes of the species known to carry Zika were found in the county in 2010, and none have been found since. Zika has been declared an epidemic in Puerto Rico already and has at least one Zika-associated birth defect reported, but the recent six cases exclude Puerto Rico and other USA territories, CDC said.
The Health Department has tested 290 pregnant women throughout the territory with one now pregnant woman having tested positive.
The Zika virus can be spread through mosquito bites and sexual contact.
Authorities in Brazil have confirmed more than 1,400 cases of microcephaly in babies whose mothers were exposed to Zika during pregnancy. According to the CDC, babies with microcephaly often have smaller head sizes and brains that might not have developed properly.
In an update today. the CDC reported more local Zika infections in U.S. territories and more travel-related cases in USA states.
The COLHD had previously alerted local health care providers and partner organizations to be aware of Zika as they see patients and to ask about travel history. All were people who had traveled to outbreak areas, or who had sex with someone who did. Guillain-Barre syndrome has also been reported in patients after Zika infection.
Jamieson said the CDC’s best estimate at the moment is that there is a 1 percent to 15 percent risk, if the infection occurs in the first trimester of pregnancy.
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Preventative measures residents can take to avoid mosquito bites include draining standing water around their property, wearing long-sleeved shirts and long trousers and using EPA-registered insect repellents.
