Dr. David Heymann, chair of the World Health Organization emergency committee, said that in the absence of any effective treatments or vaccines for the disease – and given past failures to wipe out the mosquitoes that mostly spread Zika – it will largely be up to individuals to avoid infection through the use of insect repellent and wearing long sleeves and pants.
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City of Mt. Juliet public safety officials were informed about the case by the Tennessee Department of Health and Wilson County Emergency Management Agency (WEMA) today.
Officials detected Zika in Miami Beach in July and reported the first locally transmitted cases in mid-August.
Since reporting its first Zika infection, Malaysia has increased insecticide spraying to kill mosquitoes.
Abdullah said the latest information obtained by Singapore’s health ministry showed there are 11 Malaysians in the island nation confirmed to be infected with Zika.
WHO meanwhile said Friday that Zika is still a public health emergency, reiterating its February position. According to the CDC, babies with microcephaly often have smaller head sizes and brains that might not have developed properly.
“Zika is present in our country”. The illness spreads from people to mosquitoes to people again through bites, but the insects do not spread the disease among their own population, and their lifespan is just a few weeks.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a travel advisory on Friday for Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries were Zika has appeared, recommending that travelers take precautionary measures and that pregnant women postpone planned trips.
These are people who reside in as-yet unaffected parts of the world with the right climate and abundant mosquitoes for the virus to settle, spread and propagate an epidemic like the one besetting the Americas and Caribbean, they said.
“We hope all other countries can do the same”, he said.
The city-state announced the first locally contracted case of Zika last Saturday, and the number of diagnosed infections has grown steadily. Brazil presented data that the experts said had convinced them that no infections had occurred either during the Games or after visitors and athletes had returned to their home countries. However, in severe cases it can cause fever, red eyes, joint pain, headache, and a maculopapular rash, usually lasting several days.
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Until earlier this week, scientists had tentatively suggested that there may be a link between the virus and Guillain-Barre syndrome, when the body attacks itself after an infection.
