Platelet counts fall, the blood doesn’t clot well and a patients can develop bleeding – usually not severe, but sometimes severe enough to cause shock.
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CDC officials said recently that Puerto Rico is “at great risk” for the virus, that as many as one in five residents may become infected.
The first case of Zika in Orange County was reported in March when a Costa Man man in his 40s picked up the virus while traveling in Central America, then returned home.
Zika virus infection can lead to early pregnancy loss for an expectant mother and birth defects in newborns, including microcephaly, a condition marked by an abnormally small head and poorly developed brain.
The government of the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe announced a Zika epidemic on Friday with 2,100 suspected cases.
“This demonstrates that, as with Guillain Barre Syndrome cases, that there can be severe manifestations that result from Zika virus infection”, the CDC’s Tyler Sharp told NBC News.
There is no vaccine for the Zika virus.
The White House has asked Congress for almost $1.9 billion to help state and local health officials prepare for a Zika outbreak in the United States this summer, including funds for spraying, larvacide and other mosquito control methods. CDC also says pregnant women should consider postponing travel to any area where the virus is being transmitted. North Dakota has reported a Zika case of a pregnant woman who apparently picked up the virus in Puerto Rico.
The New Brunswick Health Department says a recent traveller has been the first laboratory-confirmed case of Zika virus infection in the Maritimes. The governor said he’s ready for the possibility of Zika-infected mosquitoes to cross over state lines. The virus has spread rapidly across the Western Hemisphere, starting with an outbreak in May in Brazil.
During the summer months when USA mosquito populations are at their peak, albopictus are more ubiquitous than the Aedes aegypti that have been the primary vector of the spread of Zika elsewhere in the Americas.
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While there have been no local mosquito-borne Zika cases reported in the US states, there have been travel-associated cases. And most symptoms are mild – a fever, a rash and pink eye, for example – and last up to a week. This is the first time in the United States or territories that Zika infection contributed to a death, the CDC said. “Quest’s expertise in molecular, infectious disease and women’s health diagnostics…allow us to quickly make useful tests widely available for clinical use”.
