Medical professionals throughout the Denver metro area are fielding an increasing number of questions from those concerned about the spread of the Zika virus.
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But since the same mosquito was behind the Zika virus infection and WHO had declared an global public health emergency, the government made a decision to test all the negative samples yet again for Zika virus.
“We’re not that anxious about Bowen but we are anxious that we could be getting many more importations into north Queensland that we don’t even know about”, he said.
And Dr George Warimwe, from the Jenner Institute in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, will study the transmission of Zika in an area of East Africa, providing vital information on how the disease spreads.
The virus may also play a role in triggering Guillain-Barre Syndrome – an uncommon sickness of the nervous system.
Of 258 USA cases of travel-related Zika virus reported so far in 34 states and the District of Columbia, 18 cases involve pregnant women and another six were sexually transmitted, according to the DPH. The Zika virus in pregnant women causes microcephaly, a catastrophic birth defect, to the children born to them.
The WHO and its American arm PAHO have asked for $25 million to fight Zika and have received $3 million, and are now in an “active discussion” over the next $4 million, said Chan, who called the funding situation “pretty serious”.
In the areas most affected by Zika, the virus is primarily transmitted through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito, the same species responsible for dengue and yellow fever virus transmission. Columbia is investigating many cases for a possible link.
Brazil and Panama are now reporting cases of microcephaly – including 6,480 suspected cases in Brazil. “They have been advised to remain indoors and take precautions from being bitten by mosquitoes”.
CDC director Jung Ki-suk said in a press briefing that the person does not need to be isolated from other patients but he remains hospitalized considering it is the first confirmed case. The patient’s polymerase chain reaction test was positive for Zika virus. Brazil is the epicentre of the Zika epidemic which has affected several countries and regions in the Americas. Doctors have made these diagnoses – a total of 863 confirmed cases – by analyzing a computer tomography (CT) scan of the infants’ brains. The duration of Zika virus being present in semen after infection is not presently known.
Compared with dengue infection, symptoms of Zika infection is often milder, so it can be more hard to detect at airports, he said, adding that since the Zika virus is very likely to affect Taiwan, getting rid of vector mosquitoes is important to stave off the disease.
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Gino Solla, Director with the Ector County Health Department says, “We have such a large population in our county that has ties to Mexico, which is one of the countries that has found to have some Zika cases”.
