As national lawmakers work to free up money to fight the mosquito-borne Zika virus, the state of Florida has announced its number of confirmed cases has climbed to 18, up from a total of 16 reported on Wednesday.
Advertisement
The woman was diagnosed this week after she returned from a country where the virus is prevalent, Health Minister Jill Hennessy said.
Ms Hennesey stressed that the Zika virus poses no public health risk to anyone else as it is not present in Australian mosquitoes.
KRON 4 notes that the symptoms of Zika “include fever, rash, joint pain, and red, itchy eyes”.
“We knew it was only a matter of time before we would have the first positive case of an individual in Alabama with Zika virus”, Acting State Health Officer Dr. Tom Miller said. State officials say a lab will be ready to test for Zika within the next week. “As CDC guidance has evolved, we actually have expanded access to testing for people who had not met that agency’s initial testing criteria”.
The main concern for pregnant women is the link of Zika to Microcephaly, a rare neurological condition in which a baby is born with a very small head.
That’s why the major concern continues to be for pregnant women who travel to tropical climates.
Earlier in February, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said an global co-ordinated response was needed, although restrictions on travel or trade were not necessary.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also recommending that pregnant women avoid those regions of Central and South America and the Caribbean where Zika virus has been identified and officials have described it as spreading “explosively”.
Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said later Thursday that the House would act on the Zika spending request, though he said Republicans would search for spending cuts elsewhere in the budget to cover the cost and would “scrub” it for unnecessary items. The virus is spread by mosquitoes.
Only about one in five people infected with Zika virus will actually become ill, according to the CDC.
But he says because we’re still learning about the virus, there’s no definitive answer.
The Centers for Disease Control is hosting a conference call and webinar with Florida hospital workers Thursday afternoon to discuss the spread of the Zika virus.
Advertisement
That compares with 45 percent who had heard of Zika in a Reuters/Ipsos poll from late last month.
