The Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services Department Thursday confirmed to WFAA’s sister station in Austin, KVUE, that a man in Travis County has been diagnosed with the Zika virus.
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Another two got it this year, including a pregnant woman.
“Pregnant women should consider avoiding travel to countries with the Zika virus – or if travel is unavoidable, they ought to seek travel health advice from their GP or a travel clinic well in advance of their trip”. The country’s National Health Institute director, Martha Lucia Ospina, said all three victims were confirmed to have been infected with Zika.
The virus, for which there is still no vaccine or treatment, was first isolated from a monkey in Zika Forest, Uganda, in 1947. So far, 11 New Yorkers have tested positive for Zika. Experts say the best way to stop its spread is to controlling the population of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also carries dengue fever.
Brazil’s Health Ministry, leading efforts to contain a public health emergency in the country worst hit by the virus, emphasised in a statement that the recipient died of his wounds and not from the Zika infection. Health officials in Texas reported on Tuesday that a person in Dallas became infected after having sex with another person who had traveled in Venezuela, where the virus is circulating. “For us scientists, it’s extremely challenging to understand Zika virus”. One woman gave birth in Hawaii to a child with microcephaly; officials said she likely contracted the virus while living in Brazil.
The World Health Organization has warned that the virus could infect up to four million people in the North and South America and spread worldwide. For most people who catch the virus, it causes mild or no symptoms. Several Latin American nations have urged women to postpone pregnancies.
Zika usually is transmitted through bites from infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which are common in Florida, along the Gulf Coast and states that border Mexico.
Amid an ongoing Zika outbreak, Brazilian authorities say they have detected a spike in cases of microcephaly, which leaves infants with unusually small heads and can result in brain damage and other developmental and health problems.
After Fiocruz’s warning, Brazil’s Health Ministry updated its recommendations, adding that people should not share objects of personal use such as toothbrushes and glasses and should wash their hands frequently.
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Brazil responded to complaints it had been slow to share data about the illness.
