The virus has already swept through Brazil, where thousands of babies have been born with microcephaly, a defect in which the head is unusually small. “I urge everyone who is considering travel to a country with Zika transmission to be aware of the situation and take precautions to protect themselves and prevent mosquito bites”.
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For information and advice, the ministry launched a toll-free telephone number: 080 100 47 47.
The top US health officials leading the response to the mosquito-borne Zika virus sweeping through the hemisphere said its growing links to a broad array of birth defects and neurological disorders are worse than they originally suspected, increasing the risk for devastating harm during pregnancy.
“I’m very concerned that we could have hundreds of thousands of Zika infections in Puerto Rico and thousands of infected pregnant women”, CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, told reporters in a telephone briefing. Six people have been hospitalized and 14 pregnant women are infected.
Not only were South African mosquitoes incapable of spreading the virus, but tight surveillance of port entries made it nearly impossible for the Zika vector to be imported into the country, he said.
For more on Zika virus, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We need to have guideline on handling cases first”, said Dr Om Shrivastav, infectious disease consultant, Saifee Hospital, Charni Road. It’s setting up a monitoring system for any sign of the virus and has advised pregnant women to avoid travelling to countries with a high incidence of the virus.
The Zika outbreak originated in Brazil last spring, spread across Latin America, then to the United States, Europe and China early in 2016. CDC and KDHE have guidance to help doctors decide what tests are needed for pregnant women who may have been exposed to Zika virus.
In adults, Zika symptoms, if they appear at all, are mostly mild, consisting of things like a minor rash, headaches or joint pain. We’re going to continue to prepare. A breed of the bug common to North Texas, the Aedes mosquito, can transmit the virus, increasing the likelihood that it could be transmitted to pregnant women.
“There have been no domestic transmissions from mosquitoes to human beings, though there is an expectation that that might happen, once we get warmer weather”, he said.
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Some travelers to areas with ongoing Zika virus transmission will become infected while traveling but will not become sick until they return home.
