The Zika virus which was discovered in Uganda in 1947 is caused by a type of mosquito called AEDES, an alarming and disturbing infection that may be linked to thousands of babies being born with underdeveloped brains.
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Acting Chief Medical Officer of Health Jennifer Russell advises anyone who is pregnant or who has hopes to become pregnant in the near future to see advice from a health professional about travel to countries where the Zika virus is present.
Officials in North Texas have tested four additional patients for Zika virus and are awaiting the results, according to the Dallas County Health and Human Services.
The Anoka County, Minn., woman in her 60s who developed symptoms January 1 recently had returned from Honduras.
“All of us need to take part in this battle”, she said.
To date, the mosquito-borne virus has spread to more than 20 countries in the Americas, including some where sexual violence is rampant, Al Hussein said.
GENEVA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) – An expert from World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said Brazil reported 10-fold Zika-linked microcephaly cases than average, following the United Nations health agency declared the cluster of microcephaly and other neurological disorders in relation to the Zika virus as public health emergency of global concern. The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting several days to a week.
The guidance, issued by the CDC, also said the men might consider abstaining or using condoms even during sex with a woman who isn’t pregnant.
Ms Rousseff said most mosquitoes breed in or near people’s homes.
The most common symptoms are fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes.
According to Reuters, two cases of Zika transmission from the donated blood of people who have been bitten by the Zika-carrying Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes have been confirmed.
In Geneva, spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly said the OHCHR was asking governments in Zika-affected countries in Latin and South America to repeal any policies that break with worldwide standards and restrict access to sexual and reproductive health services, including abortion.
“The two cases can be considered transmission of the virus through blood transfusion, with greater certainty in the first because we did genetic sequencing comparing the virus in the donor and to the virus in the recipient”, Blood Center director Marcelo Addas Carvalho told Reuters.
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The meeting focused on ways to control the mosquito population spreading the virus, though reports of a United States patient catching the disease by having sex fuelled fears that it will not be easy to contain. “When people go anywhere they want to know that they’re safe, so what they know when they come to Florida is that we’re going to get ahead of this”.
