The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will award $1 million to the state of Tennessee to help fight Zika.
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To avoid getting infected, health officials advise that pregnant women refrain from unnecessary travel to places where the virus is circulating, as well as abstain from having unprotected sex with someone who is infected with Zika or has traveled to a place where it is circulating.
Brazil is now in a state of health emergency due to the increase in detected microcephaly cases in newborns, attributed to the Zika virus, even though the link between the disease and the virus has still to be scientifically confirmed.
Florida this week said it is investigating a case of Zika not related to travel to an area where Zika is active, raising the possibility of local transmission.
An out of state man working in Southeast Alaska has tested positive for the Zika Virus.
Miami-Dade County has the most confirmed infections in Florida – 89 – but so far all have involved someone who traveled outside the US mainland to areas with Zika outbreaks, such as Latin America and the Caribbean.
According to a CDC response plan, health officials would want to see more than just one unexplained case before declaring that someone has been infected by a mosquito bite in the continental United States.
Sarah Hopkins has been donating blood for many years as well and tells us that she would have no problem taking the Zika test.
The White House said in a news release Wednesday that President Barack Obama had spoken by phone with Florida Gov. Rick Scott regarding the new Zika case. USA health officials say it has been found to transmit West Nile virus and St. Louis encephalitis virus. Cases of sexual transmission have also been reported, prompting health officials to advise use of condoms, or abstaining from sex, to prevent infection between partners.
The tropical mosquito that carries Zika, Aedes aegypti, likes to live near people and it doesn’t travel far. “We continue to investigate and have not ruled out travel or sexual transmission at this time”. The WHO has also identified Zika cases in Argentina, Chile, France, Italy and New Zealand as likely caused by sexual transmission.
British health officials reported Zika was found in a man’s semen two months after he was infected, suggesting the virus may linger in semen long after infection symptoms fade.
What other complications are associated with Zika?
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In two samples it was detected that the mosquitoes were not fed which showed the virus was spread in the insect’s organism without being transmitted in a feed recently infected by Zika.
