Like the other 206 cases in Florida, the one in Highlands County came as a result of someone traveling, said Pam Crain, public information officer for the Florida Department of Health in Highlands and DeSoto counties. Sensing an injury, the body sends white blood cells called neutrophils and myeloid cells to the mosquito bite.
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The best way to prevent zika virus is to prevent mosquito bites.
For adults, symptoms of zika are a fever, rash, joint pain, and red eyes.
In February this year, the World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern because of clusters of microcephaly and other neurological disorders in some areas, particularly Brazil, that have been affected by the Zika, a virus that spreads through the bite of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito.
However, MFAT’s Zika advice page points to a list from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control website, which includes Indonesia as a country with sporadic transmission of the virus.
So, my recommendation is that if you do travel this summer to any of the countries that have known Zika, wait for at least eight weeks before becoming pregnant. The state has the highest number of Zika cases, accounting for 19 percent of the 755 nationwide as of Monday.
More than 1,400 cases of microcephaly have been confirmed in babies in Brazil whose mothers were exposed to Zika during pregnancy.
The Zika virus was discovered in 1947, and the first human cases were found in 1952.
It doesn’t matter whether a woman has travelled outside of the Australia or isn’t planning to get pregnant; the mosquito-borne Zika virus still poses a threat. However, a focus on head size may provide false reassurance to doctors and families because other brain abnormalities associated with Zika infection, such as ventriculomegaly (an enlargement of brain ventricles) and intracranial calcifications (calcium deposits in the brain tissue), may occur in children with normal-sized heads.
But for children and babies, that risk could be lower.
The commercial, part of the brand’s ongoing effort to combat the Zika outbreak, clarifies Zika, while primarily spread by mosquitos, can also be sexually transmitted by an infected man to his partner. And many people don’t get symptoms at all.
Dr. Moore also said if a woman contracts the virus before becoming pregnant, it shouldn’t be an issue for having children later. So far no infected mosquitoes have been found in the U.S.
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“Flaviviruses appear to be uniquely dependent on this particular gene to release the viral particle”, Diamond said.
