The Aedes aegypti mosquito that is the primary vector of Zika virus infections is present in the southeast portion of the country, including Florida, though in winter the mosquito populations are low.
Advertisement
IN has not reported any documented cases of Zika virus infection, but health officials expect to see some cases as residents return from travel to affected regions. A sample from the infected person was tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and was positive for the virus.
The non-pregnant individual traveled to Colombia between the end of December and the first of January, and has made a full recovery.
With fears Zika can be transmitted through sexual contact as well as mosquito bite, we asked Google to give us the top five questions people were asking about the virus on the search engine.
Two Californians contracted Zika while overseas in 2015; three more cases derived from 2014 and one in 2013, according to state officials.
The World Health Organisation has declared the Zika virus outbreak in South America an global emergency. But mounting evidence in Brazil has suggested a connection between the virus and babies born with brain defects and abnormally small heads.
To date, 31 cases of the Zika virus have been confirmed in the United States spread across 12 states.
“This is a whole new ballgame”, Dr. Lyle Petersen, director of the Division of Vector Borne Diseases at the CDC told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday.
“We need to know more about how likely this is to happen. We also have to understand whether there are other human-to-human transmission routes, such as blood transfusion, such as mother-to-child transmission”, he said. The virus is primarily spread through mosquito bites, but investigators had been exploring the possibility it could be sexually transmitted.
According to the US Centres for Disease Control, the Zika virus usually remains in the blood of an infected person for up to a week.
Advertisement
The statement also warned that anyone with symptoms which could be due to Zika such as fever, headache, aches, rash or itchy eyes should practice safe sex for six months following the start of his symptoms.
