The Ecuadorian Minister of Public Health Margarita Guevara confirmed 17 cases of the zika virus in the country Saturday, as the mosquito-borne disease linked to birth defects is spreading across Latin America and the Caribbean.
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The country and territory list was expanded to include Barbados, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin, Guyana, Cape Verde, and Samoa.
Research is under way into the effects of the Zika virus on pregnant women and newborn babies; information about the possible transmission of Zika from infected mothers to babies during pregnancy or childbirth is “very limited”, PAHO says. The outbreak was documented on Yap island in Micronesia, whereby an estimated 73 percent of residents were infected with Zika virus.
NEW YORK, United States-Three people in New York have tested positive for the Zika virus, which has been blamed for a surge in babies born with abnormally small heads in Latin America, city officials said Friday.
The agency issued an advisory last week against travel to Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela, and the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Out of the information available, at least 12 of the patients had the Zika virus illness at least 15 days prior to getting the nerve disorder. It is uncommon for people infected with Zika to need hospital treatment. The virus is spread through mosquito bites.
The alarming number of cases of microcephaly led health officials in Brazil to issue a warning to women in November 2015 to delay pregnancy. “We are quite concerned about potential complications to the fetus by the Zika infection of pregnant women”.
Typical symptoms are similar to the flu, including fever, joint pain, rash, conjunctivitis, headache and muscle pain.
Brazil was the first nation to give this advice in November after they saw a sharp increase in the rare birth defect coinciding with an outbreak of the virus there.
The ECDC advised all travelers to the affected areas “to take protective measures against mosquito bites, including during the day”.
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He said the government decided to make the announcement because 5,397 cases of the Zika virus had been detected in El Salvador in 2015 and the first few days of this year.
