Specimens of Aedes aegypti mosquito are exhibited during a campaign to raise awareness of preventing the entry of the Zika virus into the country, at the Health Ministry in Lima, Peru January 27, 2016.
Advertisement
Metro Health officials added that the six had traveled to a variety of South American countries, and none of them is pregnant.
The WHO has called a crisis meeting for Monday to determine the global response to Zika, linked to birth defects in babies, saying it’s “spreading explosively”.
“The symptoms are common symptoms; fever, joint pain, pink-eye and a rash”.
So far, she said, there have been no reports in Venezuela of Zika-infected pregnant women giving birth to children with abnormally small skulls, a condition known as microcephaly.
Brazilian authorities estimate that the country could have up to 1m Zika infections by now, and since September the country has registered almost 4,000 cases of babies born with microcephaly.
“The species of mosquito that transmits Zika is rarely found in Boston”, said Dr. Anita Barry, director of the Infectious Disease Bureau at the Public Health Commission.
The National Health Institute reported that Colombia now has 20,297 cases of Zika infection, including 2,116 in pregnant women. An increase in Guillain-Barré syndrome was noted during an outbreak of Zika virus in French Polynesia in 2014.
In most people the Zika virus produces no symptoms at all.
Health Minister Anibal Velasquez said he expected other cases of people who had been infected with Zika overseas to appear in Peru in the coming days.
The illness itself is generally mild, Taylor said. Since the outbreak in Brazil, the virus has spread to multiple countries in South America, Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico.
Advertisement
Citing patient confidentiality, Arruda declined to provide more details about the individual other than to say that the person has recovered fully. The CDC advises travelers to wear long-sleeved shirts and long trousers, use insect repellents, use mosquito bed nets, stay inside as much as possible and use permethrin, a synthetic chemical, on your clothes and gear.
