IN health officials have confirmed the first human case of the Zika virus. He reportedly is returning back to Ohio after traveling to Haiti, according to a press release from the Ohio Department of Health.
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Two Pennsylvanians have come down with Zika virus, the state’s first confirmed cases tied to illness’ outbreak overseas, the state Department of Health announced this afternoon.
Ohio’s Department of Health says the case is among three dozen in 13 states and Washington, D.C.
However, the CDC has reported additional cases of Zika being spread through unprotected sexual contact with an infected person, though those case are isolated.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was reporting 35 cases of Zika virus in 12 states and the District of Columbia prior to Tuesday. But the good news is mosquito bites which transmit Zika are entirely preventable. Brazil, by contrast, had an estimated 1 million Zika infections by the end of past year, and the virus is active locally there.
The World Health Organization has declared a global medical emergency to combat Zika and individual countries and regions are beginning to mobilize.
Since a Zika virus outbreak began in Brazil last April, there has been an unusual rise in the number of babies born with microcephaly (an abnormally small head).
The cases of the Zika virus in the United States are all travel related and contracted outside the country, except one case in Texas, where it was spread by sexual contact.
Do NOT travel to countries affected by the deadly virus, as there is no vaccine or drug that would treat the Zika virus.
About 80 percent of people with the virus do not have any symptoms.
BLACKSBURG (WSLS 10) – Virginia Tech researchers are working to learn more about the Zika virus and its potential threat to the public.
Forster says officials with the Centers for Disease Control are doubtful that being bitten now by infected mosquitos will cause problems with pregnancies later. Those infected with Zika may become ill with symptoms like fever, rash joint pain or red eyes, and the virus has been linked to a severe birth defect, microcephaly, when pregnant women get infected.
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