New York health officials say there is virtually no risk of contracting the virus in New York State, but are issuing the warning for the benefit of those who are traveling.
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Pregnant women have been warned not to travel to countries where the infection has been reported. Less than nine months later, the number of reported cases of microcephaly, where a newborn infant’s head is abnormally small, typically as a result of abnormal brain development or brain damage, spiked.
The new locations are Barbados, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin and Guyana; Cape Verde, off the coast of western Africa; and Samoa in the South Pacific.
In recent weeks, the CDC has issued travel advisories that recommend no travel to Brazil for pregnant women or women hoping to conceive.
“There is no vaccine or medicine available for Zika virus”.
An army soldier checks for mosquito larvae to try to limit transmission of the Zika virus in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
A 42-year-old woman from St. Croix has tested positive for the Zika virus, according to an Associated Press report.
Rates of travel-related Zika virus infections are expected to increase in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The Dominican Public Health Ministry announced that the 10 confirmed cases of the virus were detected in a group of 17 samples sent to be analyzed at a foreign laboratory.
The virus is relatively mild in adults with symptoms such as fever, aches and conjunctivitis, which looks similar to pink eye.
“Mosquitoes that spread Zika, chikungunya, and dengue are aggressive daytime biters, prefer to bite people, and live indoors and outdoors near people”, said the CDC. It is uncommon for people infected with Zika to need hospital treatment. “In response, health authorities in several countries, including Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, and Jamaica, have asked women to voluntarily consider delaying their pregnancies”.
One in four people infected with Zika develop symptoms and many cases of Zika go undetected, making it hard to estimate the true scale of the outbreak in the Americas.
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“If they decide to get pregnant then take the necessary measures to protect mothers during their pregnancy they cover a large part of their bodies so they are not exposed to the mosquito which could cause Zika and a child with microcephaly”.
