There are at least six cases of suspected Zika in Pennsylvania, all awaiting test results.
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Once spring arrives, the plan is to monitor mosquitoes to see whether any mosquitoes carrying the virus have arrived in the state, according to Loren Robinson, the deputy secretary for health promotion and disease prevention at the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Symptoms include fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis (red eye). Since Zika, which originated in Africa, was detected in Latin America past year, there has been a surge in babies born with microcephaly, or abnormally small heads.
While there was not yet a direct link between the Zika virus infection and birth defects, it was strongly suspected..
Zika virus infection in this individual serves as a reminder that people in Virginia can acquire the disease during travel to countries where Zika virus transmission is occurring, the department said.
Depending on the semester, students can spend weeks or months in countries throughout the Caribbean, Central America and South America, where birth defects related to Zika have been reported. “We have to mobilize to win it”, she said.
Experts say that new methods are needed because the standard practises – using insecticides and removing the standing water where mosquitoes breed – have not proved sufficient.
Privately owned vaccine developer Hawaii Biotech Inc said it began a formal program to test a Zika vaccine last fall as the virus started to gain traction in Brazil, although it has no timetable yet for clinical trials.
Located on the U of S campus, VIDO-InterVac aims to mitigate the spread of infectious disease through research and development. And so far, the hesitant response to the Zika outbreak, which has created the worst global health scare since Ebola, says much about the difficulties that the WHO and other health authorities face in combating unexpected public health threats.
As the tussle on shelving conception continues, the 22 affected countries have been receiving support from World Health Organization to strengthen their abilities to detect the arrival and circulation of the virus through laboratory testing and rapid reporting.
Zika had been viewed as a relatively mild illness until Brazilian health officials identified it as a matter of concern for pregnant women.
In the absence of a vaccine and with no way to prevent it other than to avoid mosquito bites, Latin American countries have called for greater efforts to eliminate mosquito breeding grounds.
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Transmission can possibly happen if a mosquito bites a healthy person after biting a Zika-infected person. “Those countries have not yet reported the Zika virus, but if they do, then the university will take whatever precautions it must, up to extraction from a country”. The connection between Zika and microcephaly has not yet been definitely established, but growing evidence suggests infections with the virus during pregnancy are associated with microcephaly. “So again, the best strategies we have are preventive strategies”, Hacker said.
