The virus is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito after it takes a blood meal from an infected person.
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But there are vaccines in various stages of development for other viruses in the same family – dengue, West Nile and chikungunya – that offer a pattern for creating something similar against Zika, said Fauci, who directs NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Colombian officials are raising the number of suspected cases of the Zika virus in their country.
Argentina authorities say they are investigating a possible case of infection by the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
“We’ll have to see in the future, given the experiences in Central and South America, if these types of recommendations really have any effect”.
There hospital released no further details about the patient but it says that there is little risk of it spreading in Denmark because the mosquito carrying the virus isn’t found in the country. Babies with the condition have abnormally small heads, resulting in developmental issues and, in some cases, death.
An Arkansas resident who recently traveled out of the country returned with the Zika virus.
A World Health Organisation travel alert applies to: Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin, Suriname, US Virgin Islands, Venezuela.
Zika is spread by mosquitoes, and in most people causes no more than mild illness.
This is the first confirmed case of the virus in a traveler returning to Virginia.
There is now no vaccine for Zika. “That’s why pregnant women and women who are considering pregnancy should delay planned travel to areas where Zika virus outbreaks are ongoing”.
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Brazilian officials have linked the virus with a rare birth defect, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have urged pregnant women to consider postponing flights to areas where the virus is prevalent. The CDC said last week it is trying to determine how many pregnant women may have traveled to affected regions in the past several months. In fact, Oxitec has already shown considerable success in a pilot program in Brazil in which engineered autocidal mosquitoes reduced the local population of the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes by more than 80 percent.
