Although rare, severe complications have been linked to Zika Virus infection.
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You can check out the researchers’ estimated spread in the USA here.
In January, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy directed Public Health Department to test for Zika virus. She lives in Gainesville and didn’t hear about the additional cases in Alachua county. The kind of mosquito that spreads Zika is found on the southern United States, so experts think it’s likely the pests will spread the virus there, too.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is an indication of local transmission of Zika virus in the Philippines, but no cases of Zika-related microcephaly or Guillain Barre Syndrome yet.
The program at the Knight Nonprofit Center in Gulfport was sponsored by the Mississippi Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce to raise awareness of the virus at a time when students and families are traveling to infected areas on spring break.
The Trioplex Real-time RT-PCR Assay is a breakthrough diagnostic tool, which is capable of also revealing chikungunya and dengue as well as Zika in just one test, instead of three separate exams. Babies with microcephaly sometimes have smaller brains that might not have developed properly, according to the center’s website.
DOH Deputy Secretary Lynn Gallagher said, “We have been working closely with CDC to prepare for Zika cases in New Mexico”. “This really concerns us because the impact it will have on children is for a lifetime”.
However, the case of Zika-linked meningoencephalitis has only been detected in one person: an 81-year-old man who acquired the infection while he was on a South Pacific cruise. Scientists have not yet succeeded in coming up with a vaccine or treatment for the Zika virus.
Provide protection kits to pregnant women.
For more information, go to the MCHD Zika Page.
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Mosquito abatement is also important and the health department is working with cities and towns to place larvicide traps throughout the county, Jeffers said. But with the virus in neighboring states, she said, it’s a given the virus will reach Mississippi. “Among the remaining 115 patients (including the infant’s mother), 24 had illness onset in 2015 and 91 in 2016”, the report said.
