The United States will see an increasing number of travel-related cases of the Zika virus as the epidemic that is ravaging Brazil continues to spread, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
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“The science is not clear on how long the risk should be avoided”, CDC officials said in a statement.
The virus’ illness is generally mild and 4 out of 5 people infected with Zika don’t realize it.
“We have a female, a resident of Rockland County, who traveled to South America, and within a few days of returning here had symptoms of Zika virus presented to her provider who contacted us”, Ruppert said.
The virus causes a greater impact on expectant mothers and women who want to get pregnant.
There is no vaccine for Zika virus.
Meanwhile in Brazil, the nation’s top research institute said that Zika has been detected in urine and saliva, but added that there was no proof the virus could be transmitted through those fluids.
Because of the suspected link between the virus and the birth defect, called microcephaly, the CDC recommended two weeks ago that pregnant women postpone trips to countries with Zika outbreaks, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean.
One case of the Zika virus has been confirmed in Georgia, a traveler who had been in Colombia. One of the 2016 cases affected a pregnant woman.
“This needs to be further investigated to understand the conditions and how often or likely sexual transmission is…This is the only the second mooted case of sexual transmission”, World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters.
To date, the mosquito-borne virus has spread to more than 20 countries in the Americas.
“Unless mitigated, climate change is likely to bring the spread of new emergent infectious diseases like Zika virus”, Nick Watts, who leads a commission on health and climate change for the medical journal The Lancet, said.
Public health officials in Dallas earlier this week reported the second known United States case of sexually transmitted Zika.
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The woman, whot is not pregnant, is ill but expected to recover.
