He said another big unknown was whether people who might have been exposed to the African strain of Zika might be protected once the slightly different Asian version arrives.
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To date, there have been no birth defects in the United States tied to locally acquired Zika infections.
Some of the new cases had been detected in areas where infections had not previously been reported, the health ministry said in a statement.
The discovery of Zika inside these mosquitoes confirms that the insects are in fact spreading the virus in the U.S. As Hurricane Hermine hits Florida – where 49 people have been infected by local transmission – the state’s governor is bracing for the impact, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller. As of noon Thursday, 151 cases had been reported, and the affected areas spread to include Yishun and Punggol in the north. There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika.
World Health Organization regional public information officer Eloi Yao told Xinhua in an interview that there is no vaccine yet to prevent Zika, adding that the best way to prevent diseases spread by mosquitos is to protect the people from mosquito bites.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron said the three women could have contracted a viral infection after returning from Singapore on Aug 30.
Although Zika was first identified in 1947, the virus wasn’t considered a major health threat until a major outbreak in Brazil previous year revealed that Zika can lead to severe birth defects when pregnant women are infected.
Ninety-five additional mosquito samples were subsequently tested for Zika and those mosquitoes were found to be Zika-free, the officials said.
“We don’t have any confirmed cases of Zika amongst travellers or amongst… the athletes”, Peter Salama, the WHO’s chief on outbreaks and health emergencies, told reporters.
“It could be all the way from genetic (factors) to nutritional to environmental contaminants”, he said. “But in other countries where it might enter at some time, that might not be the case”.
More than 164,000 confirmed and suspected cases of Zika and nearly 1,500 cases of the Guillain-Barre syndrome were reported from April 2015 to March 2016 in Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Suriname and Venezuela.
Senate Republicans have scheduled a vote on $1.1 billion in Zika funding for next Tuesday, when Congress comes back into session, according to a spokesman for Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky. There’s a high risk that Zika could start circulating in New Orleans or Houston, the newspaper reported.
The CDC also is advising pregnant women not to travel to an area where active Zika transmission is ongoing, and to use insect repellent and wear long trousers and long-sleeved shirts if they are in those areas.
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on mosquito-borne diseases.
