A baby born in Harris County with an abnormally small head recently had the Zika virus, state health officials announced Wednesday.
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“We do expect we will see Zika cases in the USA at some point”, George Roberts, CEO of Northeast Texas Public Health District said.
The virus is unable to infect the same person twice, and so there comes a point when there are fewer and fewer people prone to infection. Prevention Kits for Pregnant Women are being distributed to provide education about the virus and list the steps that can be taken to avoid mosquito bites, as well as prevent the insects from multiplying around homes.
Mosquito Abatement crews hope to eradicate problem viruses before they get here from KCSG.com on Vimeo. That means that mosquitoes, which only live about a month, are much more likely to live long enough to spread chikungunya than Zika, she said.
“We must begin to treat Zika with a sense of urgency we have not seen until now”, said Rubio, who went on to say he would be an advocate for any legislation to combat the spread of the disease.
Prior to 2015, Zika virus outbreaks occurred in areas of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. A recent study estimated that babies born to women who contracted Zika in their first trimester of pregnancy have a 1 to 13 percent risk of microcephaly. This leaves fewer and fewer people at risk for infection over time, the researchers said. That’s because so many people are being infected, and therefore become immune to the virus. At a slower rate and with seasonal ebb and flow, the Zika virus’ march across the Americas, they reckon, will likely grind to a halt.
“We are grateful to have a strong network of health professionals and state and local agencies in Virginia who are always ready to collaborate on issues of public health”, said State Health Commissioner Dr. Marissa J. Levine.
The connection between Zika and microcephaly first came to light last fall in Brazil, which has now confirmed more than 1,600 cases of microcephaly that it considers related to Zika infections in the mothers.
A team of British experts in disease outbreaks believes that the Zika epidemic afflicting Latin America will end within three years.
Better preparation is essential, Lessler said. Zika can also be spread sexually. But Republicans in Congress are ignoring medical science by trying to restrict access to family planning, a proven form of protection from Zika’s harms, as part of their ongoing and risky crusade against women’s health care providers.
The women were tested in North Dakota and the samples were sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Feist said. In contrast, mosquitoes need to incubate Zika for 10 days.
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It also concluded that efforts to prevent the spread of Zika are futile because those methods have not eliminated other mosquito-borne diseases including dengue fever, which is transmitted by the same vector. “The growing threat of the Zika virus is a full blown public health crisis in the United States and a clear call to action”.
