“This capability uniquely positions Quest to complement the response of public health laboratories for Zika outbreaks where access to FDA authorized diagnostic tests can potentially influence the quality of patient management”.
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United States authorities have issued travel notices due to Zika for 43 countries and territories, mainly in the Caribbean, central and south America.
With the new report, Pasco County has been added to the state’s Public Health Emergency zone.
Columbia, SC (WJBF) – Friday, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) announced the first case of travel-associated Zika virus infection in a South Carolina resident. “While this may be the first Zika-related death in our country, it won’t be the last if Congress does not start taking this virus seriously”. Quest said it is exploring options to make serological tests for Zika available as well. That means people who receive negative results may not necessarily be out of the woods, and further testing could be required if symptoms persist.
Helerstedt says Texas’ high birth rate in some parts of the state could cause a special challenge if Zika infects mosquitos there. They found the samples tested positive for the Zika virus.
The CDC recently confirmed that Zika virus infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly and other birth defects, further increasing the need for improved testing capacity.
The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, or conjunctivitis (red eyes).
Democrats say top GOP lawmakers are proposing to partially fund President Barack Obama’s request for money to fight the Zika virus. After he was infected with Zika, “he developed bleeding manifestations” and was hospitalized. It could be the virus has changed somehow, or it could be that because so many people are being infected all at once, normally rare complications are being seen more commonly.
Many people infected with the Zika virus do not get sick.
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Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical medicine specialist at the Baylor College of Medicine, said the death in Puerto Rico does not set off alarm bells in his head. “The brain structure is very abnormal”, said Jeanne Sheffield, director of maternal-fetal medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, who has been counseling pregnant women about microcephaly for two decades.
