Zika virus infection is a Class I reportable disease and must be reported by phone to the Office of Epidemiology and Research at 735-7298, or the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control at 735-7154, or after hours to 888-9276.
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“The Zika outbreak in Brazil is dynamic”, states the CDC warning, which covers both pregnant women and those who are actively trying to conceive.
“This was a woman who had never travelled”.
The two miscarriages that were confirmed to have been infected with Zika virus may give early evidence that the most risky time during pregnancy to become infected is in the first trimester of pregnancy.
The Zika project was funded through a philanthropic grant from L.E. and Virginia Simmons, a local couple, and is part of a larger effort at Houston Methodist to bolster hospital-based rapid response systems for infectious diseases. Due to the link between Zika infection and the birth defect of the brain known as microcephaly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that pregnant women “consider not going to the Olympics”.
With this, leading health organizations in the world, including the World Health Organization (WHO), are urging countries that record spike in the number of Zika cases to take proactive action to put an end to the growing global health concern.
But CDC investigators said they didn’t expect to see such severe abnormalities in such a small group of women. By the 30th week of the pregnancy, the foetus showed a range of birth defects and the researchers confirmed the presence of Zika virus in the foetus. Since 2015, however active transmission of the virus has spread to Brazil and many other countries.
The Department of Public Health and Social Services in a release issued Monday said the agency is continuing to monitor the recent reported cases of the virus in the Pacific region. Once a person is infected however, they are likely protected from future infections.
The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain and/or red eyes. She wears trousers and long-sleeved shirts, has shuttered the windows in her home and drenches herself in repellent every few hours.
The first precaution for pregnant women is to postpone travel to areas with active Zika transmission.
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CDC officials have set up a temporary lab to breed mosquitoes and determine if they are resistant to insecticides that Puerto Rico is using.
