Dr. Kevin Watkins, Cattaraugus County public health director, said one species linked to the Zika virus, which can cause brain abnormalities and small heads in babies born to infected pregnant women, has been isolated in the New York City area and counties in the southeast part of the state.
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After two CT residents were diagnosed with the Zika virus this week, state officials have again urged the public, especially pregnant women, to avoid traveling to countries affected by the virus.
In a statement the department said the foetus has several malformations. And with a huge Puerto Rican population in New Haven and other major CT cities the state is turning up the volume on the necessary precautions now that the fourth case of Zika has been confirmed in the state.There’s also more concern Friday night because a mosquito that is present in coastal New Haven and Fairfield County has been confirmed in Mexico as a carrier of Zika.
In Connecticut, 245 patients, including 217 pregnant women, have been tested for Zika.
The phenomenon was first detected in Brazil, where experts say there are almost 1,200 confirmed cases of microcephaly.
“We have scheduled meetings over the upcoming weeks to address the Zika virus here in Abilene”, Lueke said.
There are now a reported 472 cases in the nation, with three here in central Virginia. She is believed to have been bit by a mosquito in Vietnam.
There is no cure or treatment for the virus, which is usually transmitted by mosquitoes and has spread to more than 30 countries. But medical researchers have discovered there’s a problem with that advice: Some diagnostic tests will return positive results even when a person hasn’t contracted Zika.
However, Brazilian health officials said they had ruled out 1,471 suspected cases in the week ending March 19. First, an amplifier in the form of a liquid solution is added to the sample to increase low concentrations of RNA signals of the virus to a level that is detectable.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Zika is expected to infect roughly 700,000 people on the island of Puerto Rico by the end of the year.
The virus has since spread to more than 60 countries and territories, including many in the region such as Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and South Korea. They should also refrain from having sex with men who have visited Zika-active areas within a month, he said.
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Here are some questions and answers about what experts know, and need to learn, as the first mosquito-borne virus known to cause birth defects inches closer to the continental U.S.
