“It’s important to note that all countries which have reported, detected Dengue and Chikungunya virus outbreaks during the last years, that’s 15 years, are considered at risk for having outbreaks of Zika”, said Sylvain Aldighieri, Zika incident manager for Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), reported Politico.
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Mosquito season is coming up and Angel Branch is making sure she and her daughter don’t get bitten.
The Cell Press family of journals is committed to ensuring that the global response to public health emergencies is informed by the best available research evidence and data, and as such, we will make all content concerning the Zika virus free to access.
And the test’s diagnostic ability is not limited to Zika. Since 2005, there have been just over 400 cases of dengue fever in Hawaii, Texas and Florida.
Checking in with 11 reported cases, San Diego is now one behind L.A.’s 12, with Alameda County a distant third with 4, and Contra Costa with 3.
As to why: “The number of travelers coming into the USA with Zika is very high, the temperatures are permissive now for mosquito transmission, and populations of mosquitos are growing”, says a University of Texas virologist.
Zika has been linked with the birth defect microcephaly that has been sweeping through South and Central America and the Caribbean and making its way north to the United States. And doctors in Brazil are also suspecting that the Zika virus is responsible for cases of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), a temporary disorder similar to multiple sclerosis, where the protective myelin sheath surrounding neurons in the brain and spinal cord is damaged.
The virus is blamed for birth defects in babies born to women infected with the virus. The CDC has not released any more information about the women or their pregnancies.
The new device is based on technology that the researchers previously developed to detect the Ebola virus.
Department of Public Health officials said a non-pregnant woman in her 30s tested positive. Wearing long sleeves and trousers to cover exposed skin is also important when appropriate, and staying inside an air conditioned building where window screens are present is also a valuable prevention measure. The aedes mosquitos that carry the virus lay eggs in tiny sites like overturned bottle caps, not in large bodies of water congenial to aerial spraying.
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Women who become infected or who have traveled to those countries should wait eight weeks after returning or after symptoms disappear to become pregnant. The agency advises them to wait six months before trying to conceive.
