While the virus hasn’t caused any deaths, investigators are researching the link between Zika and babies who’ve been born with microcephaly-a defect in which the baby’s head is smaller than expected.
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“It’s very hard to parse this out in the middle of an epidemic”, said Khan, now dean of the University of Nebraska’s college of public health.
Spanish officials say a pregnant woman is among the seven people identified as being infected with the Zika virus there after visiting affected countries.
Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a public health emergency in four counties with travel-related cases of the Zika virus on Wednesday, and ordered state officials to increase mosquito control efforts in some of the most populous parts of the state.
The CDC has also issued a travel alert for pregnant women to postpone travel to 29 countries in the Caribbean, Central and South America.
Prevention against Zika virus focused primarily on mosquito control until Tuesday.
The advisory informs healthcare providers of the expansion of the free Zika testing, and also notifies hospitals and healthcare providers that they are required to report all potential cases to their local health department to ensure a coordinated response to the virus.
Health officials said Zika outbreaks have been reported in at least 26 countries in the Americas.
While Thompson told the television station that the case of sexual transmission is “a game-changer”, he added that he didn’t want people in Dallas County to overreact.
The increasing uncertainty stems not only because of the first case reported in Minnesota but also because a Texas case was attributed to sexual contact, amid previous assertions that only infected Aedes aegypti species of mosquitoes spread the disease, which presents the greatest risk to fetuses.
“We’re going to prepare for the worst and hope for the best”, Gov. Scott said.
His action came as the mosquito-borne virus generates increasing concern in the United States.
As a result, health bosses are reinforcing instructions to blood banks that people infected with Zika or dengue not be permitted to donate blood for 30 days after full recovery from the active stage of Zika infection. The woman later recovered and returned to Colombia.
“If they have symptoms consistent with Zika virus, during or within two weeks of travel, then we would coordinate the test for the virus with the CDC”, he said.
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All of those who were diagnosed with the virus contracted it while traveling outside the country, in areas where transmission of the Zika virus is continuing, Scott said.
