The first locally transmitted Zika infection was reported on Saturday.
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Regionally, the Zika outbreak has also been reported in Thailand and Malaysia.
Meanwhile, the virus continues to infect new countries, including most recently Singapore, which reported 189 confirmed cases Friday.
After returning to her home near the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, the 58-year-old woman fell ill and was diagnosed with “suspected” zika, based on a urine test.
The global health agency convened experts this week to decide whether the Zika virus continued to constitute a public health emergency.
“We can conclude that it is rather easy to get infected by the virus when visiting places that has outbreak, including Singapore”, he said.
He also called on Congress to provide the “necessary emergency resources” to fight the spread of the virus. But in Africa, “it’s not even known how large outbreaks have been in the past in humans”, Heymann said.
Although there is no vaccine and scientists don’t yet know how to stop Zika, they foresaw a low risk of the virus spreading at the Olympic Games last month in Brazil, the country hardest hit by the virus, during the winter season there.
As he was also suffering from other diseases such high blood pressure, cardiovascular problems and chronic kidney disease, his condition was very serious at the hospital, but not due to Zika infection, said the statement.
The West African country reported it had five cases of microcephaly, the birth defect linked to Zika, shortly before declaring the outbreak, which the World Health Organization said stems from the African strain of the virus, not the Asian strain that has been spreading quickly in Brazil and elsewhere in the Americas since 2015. “They’ve not come on the radar screen”. Almost 1,600 babies are born with birth defects and neurological complications of the virus.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez said the announcement doesn’t change the county’s mosquito control efforts…with inspectors on the ground spraying and dropping larvicide daily. There have been no reported cases of Zika virus contracted from a mosquito bite in Missouri.
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After the case was confirmed, members from the Tennessee Department of Health and WEMA went door-to-door this morning within a 200-yard radius – the recommended treatment distance – of the infected individual’s residence to inform the community about the confirmed case.
