Florida health officials confirmed three new cases of Zika virus in Miami-Dade on Tuesday, raising the statewide total to 91 people infected by the disease since February – most in the nation – as President Barack Obama signed legislation fast tracking the regulatory process for developing a vaccine.
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Scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have concluded, after careful review of existing evidence, that the zika virus is a cause of microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects.
Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene hosted a Zika virus town hall meeting yesterday to educate its workforce about the mosquito-borne virus.
The virus causes symptoms that include a fever, rash, joint pain, headache, muscle pain, and conjunctivitis.
Norman Grefe, the environmental health manager for Norfolk, said mosquito control employees are gearing up for surveillance and control efforts for a season that typically kicks off on May 1.
“We don’t expect locally-acquired cases here because the species of mosquitos that are now known to transmit Zika are not found in Rhode Island”, said Dr. Alexander-Scott. A digitally colorized transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of Zika virus.Q: Then how would pregnant women know if they’d been infected?
Zika can also be transmitted sexually, according to the BCCDC.
Check-in time for this free seminar is 6 p.m. The featured speaker, Dr. Cecilia Trujillo, MD of the Palisades Women’s Group, will discuss the many symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment options available for pregnant women and women of childbearing.
Though Zika is not a super-new virus-it was first discovered in 1947 in Uganda’s Zika forest-the scope and seriousness of this outbreak is unusual in the disease’s history. Babies with microcephaly often have smaller brains that might not have developed properly. The Americas have been hardest hit so far – which is why there is the best understanding of where it will spread – but there have already been incidents of Zika around the world, and many countries with Aedes mosquitoes are being warned. Other health conditions in infants have been associated with Zika virus, as well, including Guillain-Barre Syndrome, an auto-immune illness that can cause total paralysis of the body.
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More than 30 countries in South America, Latin America and the Caribbean have reported the virus. The CDC says to wear long-sleeve shirts and trousers when working outside to avoid bites, but that’s not always realistic, especially when the temperatures really heat up come summertime.
