North Carolina health officials announced today the first case of Zika virus has been confirmed in a person living in North Carolina.
Advertisement
“The epidemiologic studies ongoing here in Brazil and some being initiated in Colombia should help cement the link”, she said.
Lyndon Lee-Suy, Spokesman for the Health Ministry, said the scare over Zika has been heightened by warnings from the Pan American Health Organisation that in a few cases the virus could have been sexually transmitted.
“The general public is not at risk of contracting this virus, because the mosquitoes that transmit Zika are not established in Iowa”, Quinlisk said in a news release.
But the increase in both cases and birth defects in Brazil in the past year has prompted health officials to reassess their thinking about Zika and pregnant women.
Zika virus disease in children, as for adults, is usually mild with 80 percent of those people not having any symptoms, according to the CDC. Symptoms can include rash, red eyes, fever and joint pain.
Aylward said it would move early next month to accelerate research on developing diagnostic tests and vaccines against Zika by convening global experts.
The WHO noted that “existing scarce evidence indicates that there may be a risk of sexual transmission” of Zika virus, as well as a risk of it persisting in semen and urine.
Because the Zika virus can cause a serious birth defect called microcephaly, pregnant women are advised to avoid travel to countries with reports of Zika transmission.
South African health authorities on Friday confirmed the first Zika case involving a Colombian businessman.
By comparison, it will take much longer to register a spike in microcephaly in babies born to women infected with Zika at some point during their pregnancies, he said.
Following approval of Zika testing by the department, health care providers send specimens to the State Hygienic Laboratory, which then routes them to the Centers for Disease Control for analysis. It is investigating more than 3,900 additional suspected cases.
Government says it has put measures in place to protect South Africa’s ports of entry from any possible infiltration of the Zika-carrying mosquito sub-species.
Advertisement
“We have no doubt that the epidemic of microcephaly that we are seeing in Brazil is caused by the Zika virus outbreak”, Castro told reporters on the sidelines of Thursday’s meeting.
