But the disease has grabbed headlines in the past year because of the severe birth defects – including abnormally small heads and brain damage – it causes in infants born with it in South and Central America, the Caribbean, the Pacific Islands, Mexico, Cape Verde, and elsewhere, too. No cases acquired through mosquito bites have been reported.
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The researchers analyzed the requests for abortion medications submitted to Women on Web (WoW), a nonprofit organization that provides abortion medications like mifepristone and misoprostol to women in countries where safe abortion is not universally available.
To Abigail Aiken – a health policy researcher at University of Texas at Austin – this felt like a “disconnect”.
They turned to a group that specialized in getting abortion pills to women in countries with restrictions via drone, speedboat and other methods: Women on Web (WoW).
Researchers analysed data on requests for abortion through the website between January 1, 2010 and March 2 this year, in 19 Latin-American countries, assessing whether requests for abortion increased beyond expected trends following the PAHO alert. The virus is transmitted via the bit of an infected Aedes mosquito.
An infected mosquito spit can help spread Zika virus, two new studies have found. In mice tests, mosquito saliva was proven a vital player in the spread of a virus that in certain cases can turn a benign infection into a life-threatening one.
“All these viruses have one thing in common: they start with a mosquito bite”, says McKimmie.
Ten pregnant women in Dallas County have been diagnosed with the Zika virus.
Couples in which the man travels to a Zika-affected area but returns without symptoms of the virus should consider using a condom or abstaining from sexual activity for at least eight weeks after his possible exposure.
Prof Jimmy Whitworth, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the report “agrees with what I have heard informally from several sources in Latin America about increased interest in finding out more, and in making requests for abortions”. “Many women have problem with access to care even if abortion is legal”. The CDC Foundation, the US public health agency’s philanthropic arm that received the donations, said it needs $20 million for training and follow-up services to get the contraceptives to women.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) encouraged Australians to exercise a “high degree of caution” and protect themselves against mosquito bites as this is how the virus is transmitted. The requests for abortion pills increased from 36 percent to 108 percent after the warnings.
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Bennett joins five local and state health officials to address a room full of community members.
