“The probability of Zika-induced microcephaly occurring does not appear to be that high, but when it does, the damage is terrible”, said Tang.
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Zika was first identified in Africa in 1947.
A second zone of ongoing transmission in Miami-Dade was confirmed on August 19 in a 1.5-square-mile area of Miami Beach, with links to at least five infections.
Five of the babies – 7 percent of the total – had hearing loss. The current study adds Zika infection to that list.
That’s similar to the rates of hearing loss seen in other infections that damage fetuses, such as rubella, cytomegalovirus, herpes and syphilis.
Scientists are still in the early stages of understanding the full breadth of the health problems that are caused by Zika.
The New York Times says that the recommendations are an acknowledgment that sexual transmission may facilitate the spread of Zika even in places where the infected mosquitoes are not.
The mother developed symptoms of Zika illness – rash, fever, headache, swollen joints – in week 26 of her pregnancy.
The Zika virus, which is spread by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and can cause microcephaly in newborns, could also cause deafness, according to a Brazilian study published Tuesday.
“There is still much uncertainty regarding the nature and extent of Zika virus transmission”, Peter Marks, a director at the FDA, said in the release.
The FDA has authorized use of two experimental blood-screening tests for Zika, one made by Roche and another from Hologic Inc.
“It takes years if not decades to develop a new drug”, said co-investigator Dr. Hongjun Song, a professor at Johns Hopkins. This time, it involves a drug that could stop the virus in humans. But in this case-with Zika becoming a global threat-they knew they had to as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, there is some promising research in the fight against zika.
Douglas County has no reported cases, according to Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department spokeswoman Karrey Britt. In July 2016, the first cases of local or non-travel related transmission of Zika virus in the continental USA were reported in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
The rising number of the mosquito-borne disease cases in Florida worries the FDA, because there is a great chance that it can accidentally be infused in pregnant women and increase the risk of their unborn child to have serious birth defects.
“Now that we are seeing vector-borne infections that go from mosquito to human, and also sexual transmission of Zika in the United States, at some point in places like in, those travel history questions become less effective”, he says.
The CDC said pregnant women should avoid all necessary travel to the British Virgin Islands. The Maryland man had traveled to the Dominican Republic, one of the many countries in the Caribbean and Latin America hit with a Zika outbreak.
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The Food and Drug Administration wants all US blood centers to start screening for Zika, a major expansion meant to protect the nation’s blood supply from the mosquito-borne virus.
