The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised pregnant women to reconsider travel to Brazil and 21 other countries with Zika outbreaks.
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NEW YORK, United States-Three people in New York have tested positive for the Zika virus, which has been blamed for a surge in babies born with abnormally small heads in Latin America, city officials said Friday.
There is no vaccine to combat Zika, meaning the only way for travellers to protect themselves is to avoid getting bitten by a mosquito.
“There is virtually no risk of acquiring Zika virus in New York State at this time as the virus can not be spread by casual contact with an infected person and mosquitoes are not active in cold winter months”, DOH Commissioner Howard Zucker said in a statement.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on Sunday (Jan 24) that it is monitoring the Zika virus situation closely, although no cases of the virus have been detected in Singapore.
The Zika virus originated in Africa and has spread through parts of Asia.
On Friday, the Associated Press reported that Zika virus was found in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Recently, the first US case was reported in Texas outside Houston.
“Women who are planning to become pregnant should discuss their travel plans with their healthcare provider to assess the risk of infection with Zika and receive advice on mosquito bite avoidance measures”.
“While many of us are convinced and believe it’s highly plausible that Zika virus caused this epidemic of Guillain-Barre, and can cause it anywhere the virus is being transmitted, we still lack really firm evidence to make that diagnosis”, said Ko, who has conducted research in northeastern Brazil for two decades.
The recommendations also call for women who have traveled to these places during their pregnancy be screened and monitored for the virus if their visit took place while the virus was present in the country they visited.
The Public Health England agency said the three cases are “associated with travel to Colombia, Suriname and Guyana”.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic venues will be inspected daily during the games in a bid to prevent the spread of a mosquito-borne virus linked to a rare birth defect and also a condition that can cause paralysis, local organizers said Sunday.
Since May 2015, when zika began surfacing in the northeast of Brazil, over 300,000 cases have been registered in the region.
“A small number of cases have occurred through sexual transmission or by transmission from mother to foetus via the placenta”, he added. Since October, Brazil has recorded 3,893 suspected cases of the birth defect – which can lead to stillbirths, as well as long-lasting developmental and health problems among survivors.
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In the Peruvian capital Lima, authorities disinfected a big cemetery for fear that Zika-bearing mosquitos were breeding in the flower pots.
