While the disease’s symptoms appear to be mostly manageable, health officials became more alarmed when the disease was linked to a bad birth defect called microcephaly, which is characterized by a shrunken head and incomplete brain development.
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Fauci said the United States typically spends US$97 million per year on viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks, and it will draw from that pool of money to fund new Zika research in a host of areas, including diagnostic tests, vaccines, basic research and vector control.
While Lavoie said he is not concerned about anyone contracting the Zika virus in Alberta, people, especially women, should take precautions when travelling overseas. These are the same mosquitoes that spread dengue and chikungunya viruses. Though the virus is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, contagion has also been found to possibly occur through sexual transmission, Ippolito added.
She added that other tools to fight the virus could be developed in the meantime.
“There is one reported case of Zika virus through possible sexual transmission”, she said. It is possible for babies born with mild microcephaly to show no symptoms later in life, apart from small head size.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says the disease is now in more than 20 countries, mostly in Central and South America.
In early January, Brazil’s Ministry of Health told the WHO that it had found 38 deaths linked to suspected cases of microcephaly.
Since May 2015, PAHO has issued monthly epidemiological alerts advising countries what to do if they have Zika cases, and how to monitor and prepare for its eventual arrival.
Three people in New York City – including a pregnant woman – have been diagnosed with the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus after returning home from nations where the disease is flourishing, city officials said. Some researchers have wondered whether someone who gets infected with Zika and dengue at the same time, for instance, may suffer worse effects.
President Obama called for urgent action against the Zika virus this week.
“The vast majority of people who contract Zika do not get seriously ill, and recover quickly when they do”, Scott Zoback, spokesman for the BPHC, said in a statement.
Although the Zika virus was first documented in 1947, it caused only sporadic and small outbreaks of illness until recently.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease, on Thursday said one of the vaccines was based on work done on the West Nile virus.
He explains that most of the patients who have chose to delay IVF until the winter, when there are fewer mosquitoes and chances of getting infected by Zika are lower.
They also say the likeliness of it spreading around Boston is minimal. On Feb. 1, a WHO committee will determine whether to declare a public health emergency of worldwide concern.
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“If you have been travelling in places Zika virus is present we will ask you not to donate right away after travelling”, said Dr. Dana Devine, chief medical officer from Canadian Blood Services.
