Potjaman Siriarayapon, a doctor who heads the Investigation and Public Health Emergency Response Unit in Thailand’s Bureau of Epidemiology, said health specialists were working to track and contain each instance of the Zika virus. He is expected to fully recover.
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Travel related Zika is a case in which a traveler out of the country became infected and diagnosed with the mosquito-borne virus after arriving in the United States.
The Zika virus produces flu like symptoms in most, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Zika typically is transmitted to people by a bite from an infected mosquito, but it also can be spread from mother to unborn child, through sexual contact and through blood transfusions.
The research team, led by Carrie Byington from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, is hoping to enrol at least 1000 men and women, the majority of whom will be involved in the US Olympic team in some form.
As of Thursday, 934 travel-related Zika cases and one lab-acquired incident were reported in the United States, and 13 of them were classified as sexually transmitted.
All cases diagnosed in the US were from people who had traveled internationally.
Researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health will be monitoring Zika virus exposure among some of the athletes, coaches, and other U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) staffers who are attending the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Brazil next month.
The Zika virus is particularly concerning for women because it has been linked to a birth defect known as microcephaly. While this is true for mosquitoes that commonly carry the West Nile virus, other types of mosquitoes that are more likely to carry Zika, dengue and chikungunya are active during the day, according to the CDC. Common symptoms of Zika virus include fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis (red eyes).
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Health departments in the southern states, which are considered at higher risk, are preparing for how to handle it “if and when” the Zika Virus does arrive. Health experts say the illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week after being bitten by an infected mosquito. There is no cure or vaccine available.
