The CDC on Friday recommended that pregnant women consider postponing travel to any countries or regions with active Zika virus transmission. Zika causes a mild illness with fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis, with symptoms usually lasting under a week.
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“The mother likely had Zika infection when she was residing in Brazil in May 2015 and her newborn acquired the infection in the womb”.
Voice of America News reports (http://bit.ly/1WjnD2r ) that the baby has suffered brain damage.
The baby was born with microcephaly, a serious birth defect in which a baby is born with an abnormally small head and possible developmental problems.
“We are saddened by the events that have affected this mother and her newborn”, Dr Sarah Park, Hawaii state epidemiologist, said in the statement. Brazil has been experiencing a huge Zika virus infection that began last May, and has seen a startling increase in infants born with microcephaly.
The Hawaii health department said it sent a medical advisory about the infection to doctors across the state but emphasised that neither the mother nor baby were infectious.
The mosquito-borne virus is linked to a condition called microcephaly, a neurological disorder characterized by shrunken skulls in babies.
Over a dozen cases of Zika have been reported in the mainland United States – including a recent case in Texas – but so far only in people who have recently traveled to infected areas. 15, 2016, US health officials are telling pregnant women to avoid travel to Latin America and Caribbean countries with outbreaks of a tropical illness linked to birth defects. The locations named were: Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The list of countries with transmission has been steadily growing; on Saturday, Barbados reported its first cases.
It also includes advice that women who are trying to become pregnant should consult with their doctor before travelling to those areas.
In December, Puerto Rico reported its first confirmed case in someone who had not recently traveled, meaning they caught it from a mosquito on the island. CDC is developing interim guidance for pregnant women as well as sharing additional information about Zika with public health officials, clinicians and the public. “More studies are planned to learn more about the risks of Zika virus infection during pregnancy”, notes the alert.
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The Brazilian Health ministry says it’s developed new testing kits to rapidly identify the presence of three viruses – Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya – all carried by the same mosquito.
