The CDC is advising against travel to countries dealing with Zika, especially for pregnant women traveling to these areas.
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US and Brazilian medical experts have launched a research partnership to find a vaccine against the Zika virus, according to a Reuters report.
Given the frequency of travel between South Africa and a number of countries now experiencing outbreaks of the Zika virus, it was likely that other sporadic imported cases would be seen in South Africa in travellers, as had been the experience in a number of countries, Motsoaledi said.
“Scientists are increasingly confident that Zika is causing microcephaly, but people may have different judgments about how much proof is enough”, Schuchat told an assembled group of reporters during a two-day meeting in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia recently. Officials there have advised pregnant women to stay at home.
“Brazil is going to have a fantastic Olympics and it’s going to be a successful Olympics and the world is going to go there”, Aylward said.
In autopsies, doctors in Brazil have found evidence of the virus in the brains of babies born with the neurological disorder microcephaly, said the director of the WHO’s outbreaks and health emergencies department, Dr Bruce Aylward on Friday. Zika virus is a mosquito-borne virus that can cause flu-like symptoms but very rarely leads to death. The mosquitoes that spread Zika – which also spread dengue and yellow fever – are entrenched across the region and in a wide belt around the globe, mostly in tropical areas.
For more information, visit the Centers for Disease Control or call the 28th MDG Public Health office at 605-385-3383.
“It is not that we’re waiting for a magic bullet of one of these new, fancy, potentially important new technologies, but a lot can be done in terms of controlling this outbreak and massively reducing the disease burden with now available tools and strategies”, Alonso said.
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On Feb.1, the WHO declared the Zika virus an worldwide health emergency, the same status accredited to the deadly Ebola virus, citing the fever’s potential link to microcephaly in babies. That includes working with the Public Health Agency of Canada to ensure that individuals presenting with symptoms are tested as quickly as possible.
