Recently, there has been a link between the virus and serious birth defects, which is why the CDC has imposed travel restriction for pregnant women.
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However, with the onset of spring and summer, the risk of Zika virus transmission in Europe will grow, as mosquitoes find better breeding grounds in warmer climates. Officials say about 25 people have been tested for the virus, but no recorded cases as of Friday. Zika is similar to other mosquito-transmitted viruses like dengue and Chikungunya, he said.
There is growing alarm over the outbreak, with the World Health Organization on Thursday saying Zika is “spreading explosively” throughout the Americas, and calling for an emergency meeting to try to find ways to stop the spread. But the state Department of Public Health said, “While the association is compelling, it is not known if the increase in microcephaly cases is directly caused by Zika virus infections”. The virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in rhesus monkeys and was first identified in people in 1952 in Uganda and Tanzania, according to the WHO.
Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that can cause fever, rash, muscle and joint aches and pinkeye.
Two of the cases are in B.C., one contracting the virus in El Salvador and the other in Colombia, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control has confirmed to CBC News. There could be explosive consequences were the Zika virus transmitted to India.
Despite the advice, Dr Hilary Kirbride, travel and migrant health expert at PHE, said the risk to people in England who had not travelled to affected countries “is negligible as the mosquito is not found in the United Kingdom and the virus can not be caught from coming into contact with an infected person”. Since the outbreak in Brazil, the virus has spread to multiple countries in South America, Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico. And because the test can take up to 14 days, symptoms may have resolved by the time results arrive anyway, she said.
But doctors say they are still learning about the virus and its impact on mothers and unborn children.
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Previous year six cases were reported and 57 in 2014. The yellow fever mosquito has spread most Zika cases but in the U.S.is common only in Florida, along the Gulf Coast and in Hawaii.
