The Boston Public Health Commission said on Friday that the patient, who is a Boston resident, contracted the virus while traveling outside the country. “Some of the important things we care about with pregnancy are how frequently, if a mom gets the infection, does it get transmitted to the baby”, Beamon said.
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The CDC is advising pregnant women in any trimester to postpone travel to 2 dozen countries – mostly in Central and South America and the Caribbean – where Zika transmission is ongoing. He acknowledged the virus is circulating with “very high intensity”. There is, of course, real concern over the outbreak of birth defects known as microcephaly in areas that have seen zika cases, but nobody can yet say categorically that zika is the cause.
Zika is suspected of being behind the birth of babies with abnormally small heads. Newborns with the birth defect have small heads and underdeveloped brains. During an outbreak of Zika from 2013-2014 in French Polynesia, national health authorities reported an unusual increase in Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks part of the nervous system. But, said World Health Organization assistant director general Bruce Aylward within an hour or so, they are concerned rather than alarmed. Nine years ago, new cases popped up in islands in the Pacific Ocean.
“Last year, the virus was detected in the Americas, where it is now spreading explosively”.
Cabrera said that if the WHO declared a public health emergency, it would help mobilize a cohesive response to the virus and give countries clear guidelines on what measures they should be taking. Though the virus is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, contagion has also been found to possibly occur through sexual transmission, Ippolito added.
– The WHO said Zika cases have been reported in 23 countries and territories in the Americas in the current outbreak.
The WHO has set up an International Health Regulations Emergency Committee to examine Zika and will meet on Monday to decide whether it constitutes a global emergency on the scale of Ebola. “While Brazil, PAHO and the CDC have acted rapidly, World Health Organization headquarters has thus far not been proactive, given potentially serious ramifications”.
“The decision to provide a woman with a certificate that she should not travel is at the discretion of her health-care professional”, said Air Canada’s travel advisory.
The Geneva meeting will aim to pull together research and get experts’ recommendations on the next steps. The mother most likely had the infection while she was residing in Brazil. The Zika virus, originally from Africa, is carried from mosquitoes. Nor are there medicines to treat those who have it.
Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Jamaica and Puerto Rico have warned women to avoid getting pregnant for the time being.
“That’s not now in the United States, it’s not the border region with Mexico”, Dr. Eric McDonald, the county’s medical director of epidemiology and immunization services, told City News Service.
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McDonald said both were treated as outpatients and recovered within one week. Barbosa has multiple candles and liquid repellents throughout her home to reduce the risk of mosquito exposure.
