The virus, which has spread rapidly through the Americas since it was first detected in Brazil past year, can cause the rare birth defect microcephaly, marked by abnormally small heads and developmental problems.
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If passed through pregnancy, Zika can cause severe fetal brain defects. For example, it can lead to Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), a disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the peripheral nervous system.
“When you have a sub-tropical, or semi-tropical region with the right mosquitoes, and individuals who have travel-related cases that are in the environment, it would not be surprising that we will see additional cases, not only in Florida, but perhaps in other of the Gulf Coast states”, Fauci said. Zika can also be spread through sex. Zika has been declared a public health emergency due to it’s rapid spread.
Associate professor Chelsea Smartt is returning to Brazil to provide real-time information about the involvement of the Asian tiger mosquito in the outbreak, as most scientists are focusing on involvement of the yellow fever mosquito. There are also over 400 travel- related cases of Zika in the state. Details were not released about where in Pinellas the case was reported.
The governor said that the Department of Health and Pinellas County Mosquito Control are already working together and have begun aggressive spraying and mosquito abatement efforts in Pinellas County. Officials are looking into the possibility that the Pinellas County resident was infected with the virus in a neighboring county.
Time confirmed back in May that there were no approved drugs or vaccines for Zika.
He also went on to say that he would not be surprised if he sees cases of Zika virus infection in Texas and Louisiana, especially where the flood has occurred in Louisiana.
Of course, before any of this happens, the government needs to approve of it – the study does ask for people to willingly get infected with the virus, after all. All of them were travel-associated according to testing personnel.
Promising candidates will then have to be tested in actual people- “the only way to prove if an experimental vaccine really protects”. Some consider DNA easier to make than traditional vaccines, which are made using a dead or weakened virus to train the body’s immune system to recognize that infection and fight it off.
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Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC’s This Week on Sunday that he expects Texas and Louisiana to join Florida in the list of US states recording locally-acquired cases of Zika.
