Garin, however, said there is no need to panic as it is an isolated case.
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Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. issued the statement after an American woman who visited the country in January tested positive for the Zika virus upon returning home.
There are 41 countries including 31 in South and Central America and the Caribbean reporting active Zika virus transmission.
So how can you protect yourself against the Zika virus? Government health experts said the best way to fight Zika virus is to observe personal hygiene and sanitation as well as eliminate possible breeding sites of mosquitoes.
She further said that if DOH would allow random testing, that can cause the people to be “scared” which will in turn drive them to waste resources or unwise spending of money.
The suggestion was made in the facebook post of cardiologist, Dr. Willie Ong.
Since the start of the Zika virus outbreak, there has been a great rise in the number of microcephaly cases in babies. If one American visiting Luzon could get zika, then many other Filipinos already have Zika virus. We are already 2 months late in testing our people for zika. “However, ‘Yong epekto niya doon sa dinadalang bata, ‘yun ang nagkaroon ng importansya because there is a huge possibility that there is direct relationship between mycrocephaly, Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and zika virus”, she added.
Aliota is part of a research team from the University of Wisconsin that’s studied the recent spread of the Zika virus since its earliest stages.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission and the Health and Family Planning Commission of Guangdong Province have reported an additional two imported cases of Zika Virus infection today.
The American woman was already showing symptoms of Zika virus infection during the last few days of her stay in the Philippines but was only diagnosed with the Zika virus after returning to the U.S. However, health officials say that this is only the second Zika virus case in the Philippines’ history and no outbreak has been announced.
While knowledge of the link between Zika and birth defects is evolving, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends special precautions for pregnant women because of increasing evidence of an association between Zika virus infection in pregnant women and a certain type of birth defect, microcephaly, that occurs in some pregnancies.
Zika virus is usually transmitted through the bite of an infected female Aedes mosquito, the same mosquito that transmits dengue and chikungunya.
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“Our main target is really for vector control”, she said.
