The disease is spread by the Aedes species of mosquito, a mosquito that used to be found only in tropical and subtropical areas but is now found on every continent except Antarctica. The other, Aedes aegypti, lives in the southern United States.
Advertisement
“I don’t have a crystal ball, but it’s going to surprise me if we have widespread transmission of this in the United States”, said Dr. John D. Goldman, an infectious disease specialist at Harrisburg-based PinnacleHealth System.
The firm breeds special male mosquitoes that are released into the air and help stop the spread of Zika by passing along a gene to their offspring that make them die young. Outbreaks of Zika have occurred in areas of Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas.
“I would certainly not advise a family member of mine who is pregnant to go to any of those areas”, he said.
It was first discovered in the Zika forest in Ghana in the late 1940s. The disease has been associated with several thousand cases of microcephaly, a rare condition in which infants are born with abnormally small heads and damaged brains.
In Brazil, the incidence of microcephaly has increased markedly with the spread of Zika infections.
For more information on Zika, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website here.
But the key concern right now is the safety of pregnant women, who are not a large subset of travelers, notes Amanda Bourlier, an analyst at Euromonitor International. The situation will likely weigh heavily on many American woman, since the 2016 Olympics will be held in Brazil this summer.
Pregnant women should consider postponing trips to countries where Zika is being spre0ad. Symptoms of Zika, which is transmitted through Aedes species mosquitoes, usually include fever, headache, rash, red eyes, and joint pain, it said. About 80% of infected people have no symptoms.
President Obama on Tuesday called for accelerated development of vaccines, tests and treatments for Zika virus.
There is no vaccine or medication to cure the Zika virus. However, it’s also possible it can exist in the blood and possibly infect a fetus for up to three weeks.
The new Zika virus is “spreading explosively” through aedes mosquitoes, the World Health Organization (WHO) has sent out an alarm on January 28.
“There are two mosquitoes in particular that we are concerned about”, Dr Webb said.
The company has already been running the project to try and wipe out the Aedes Aegypti mosquito in the Brazilian city of Piracicaba for more than a year.
“It just adds to the level of concern for this mosquito, and another reason to control it”, Fujioka said.
Advertisement
Economists are having difficulty calculating how Zika could impact tourism and the overall economy, since the virus is a relatively new phenomenon and there is uncertainty about whether it may be contained or spiral out of control.
