Mexico Health Department’s Dr. Cuitlahuac Ruiz Matuz said authorities there had objected to a blanket travel advisory for the country before it was issued, and had lobbied CDC for a change. Worth mentioning is the U.S. case of a Texan man who may have transferred the Zika virus to his wife after travelling to Venezuela, thus adding an interesting dimension to the transmission of the virus- sexually- transmitted, that is- in contrast to the usual day-biting female of the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
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A third, pregnant service member in the region sped up her scheduled return to the United States as a result of the Zika scare, Tidd said.
“Zika is still evolving, we’re still learning about the impacts of Zika”, Hunter said.
Puerto Rico has reported approximately 160 locally acquired Zika virus infections to date, and the number of infections is expected to dramatically increase, according to Frieden. Officials said Friday that 21 of those cases involve pregnant women. “I am very concerned that before the year is out there could be hundreds of thousands of Zika infections in Puerto Rico and thousands of infected pregnant women”.
The CDC is also trying to find an effective insecticide because “we are finding a wide resistance to some insecticides”, Frieden said.
Malaysians have been safe from the devastating Zika virus – so far.
For more on Zika virus, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus has also been associated with Guillain-Barre syndrome, which can cause paralysis in individuals who have been infected. “The one out of the five persons does get infected will have mild symptoms”, he said.
Due to a possible link between infection during pregnancy and microcephaly in the infant, pregnant women are strongly advised to delay travel to Zika-affected areas.
Last week, researchers reported that the Zika virus may cause the birth defect microcephaly by targeting certain brain stem cells and stunting their growth.
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“I’m not going to let it affect my trip, but I’ll be careful about what I do in Cancun”, said Kyle Ferguson, a senior at the University of New Hampshire.
