“Our department will continue to actively partner with the CDC, Maryland health care providers, laboratories and health departments to provide support to Marylanders at risk of Zika infection – especially to pregnant women”, Maryland health department secretary Van T. Mitchell said in a statement.
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Infection with the Zika virus causes only mild symptoms in the majority of the cases, but an apparent link to birth defects and other pregnancy-related poor outcomes has been associated with infection during pregnancy.
Brazil has reported almost 4000 suspected cases of microcephaly and the World Health Organisation has declared the virus an worldwide health emergency.
Health authorities have confirmed that a pregnant woman has been diagnosed with the Zika virus in Victoria.
The small, black-and-white-striped insect responsible for spreading a disease that health officials fear has caused neurological birth defects in newborns across Brazil and in other countries is a familiar foe of Southern California residents.
Brazil remains the most affected country, with estimates suggesting that somewhere between 440,000 to 1.3 million people have been infected since December. But if they already did, the CDC is telling doctors to test the women for Zika between two weeks and 12 weeks after they return.
This week another pregnant woman became the third confirmed case in Queensland in 2016. The connection has yet to be scientifically proven, but the CDC has pointed to strong evidence of a link between the two and called on pregnant women to avoid travel to 22 countries with active outbreaks. The CDC official didn’t say where they lived.
“We are learning more every day”, wrote Blackmun in his letter.
So far 17 people in Maryland have been tested for Zika.
– Bitter cold temperatures we feel make it hard to think about spring but the next season is on the minds of city leaders who met Thursday to discuss how to prepare if the mosquito-borne Zika virus comes to New York City.
For more on Zika virus, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Frieden also said that one US case of Guillain-Barre syndrome may be linked to Zika.
