On the heels of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) statement that the Zika virus was “spreading explosively”, the Centre said it has constituted a special, technical group to monitor the spread of Zika in other countries.
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New York City Commissioner of Health Mary Bassett said people should be careful considering where to spend their winter holidays.
He said that CT has a real interest in preventing the spread of the Zika virus because of the number of its residents that travel to Puerto Rico and countries in the Caribbean. “However, we encourage those traveling to countries with a high risk for Zika transmission – especially those who are pregnant or may become pregnant – to take the utmost care to avoid contracting the virus”. Canadian Blood Services has asked potential donors who have travelled outside of Canada, the United States and Europe to postpone donations for one month after returning.
Most people exposed to Zika, a tropical virus spread by mosquitoes, suffer only mild symptoms. He says, “A person will be infected from a mosquito bite, will increase their levels of virus”. Pregnant women are mostly affected by this virus. Alberta has also reported a case of an individual who contracted the virus overseas.
World Health Organization said the main concern of the emergency committee was not Zika, but the connection between Zika and microcephaly as well as Guillain-Barrre syndrome.
Experts say most people don’t experience severe symptoms when dealing with the virus.
Microcephaly is when a newborn is born with a small head. A dengue outbreak in 2010-2011 had our government scrambling to contain the spread of the disease and despite its best efforts there were hundreds of deaths across Pakistan.
The China CDC has developed testing reagents for Zika virus detection.
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“In the long term, simply not traveling is not a solution – anymore than telling women not to get pregnant is not a solution”.
