According to China Daily, Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Xu Zhiheng, a principal investigator at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, and Qin Chengfeng of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences’ Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology teamed up to successfully unravel the mysterious link between the disease and the virus.
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“There have been kind of isolated findings in MA of that mosquito, but we do not have widespread, established populations of that mosquito”, Brown said. “The biggest thing that we want to let donors know is to plan for Zika travel and to let the donors who aren’t traveling know that we need them”.
“Miami is leading the state in travel-related cases of the Zika virus and is an worldwide hub for travel, especially for those traveling to Brazil this summer for the Olympics where the virus is spreading rapidly”. The federal government recommends that those who travel to areas where the virus is active wait a month after returning to donate blood.
“Because of the particular risk of Zika virus to pregnant women, we’re making the very strong recommendation that if you are pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant in very near future that you should avoid traveling to places where Zika virus transmission is ongoing”, Brown said. Zika is linked to birth defects in babies whose mothers contracted the disease while pregnant.
“In the countries that have been hardest hit by the Zika virus, in Latin America and the Caribbean, thousands of cases of microcephaly have left parents distraught and pregnant women fearful”, Philpott said in a statement Wednesday. Women are also encouraged by the CDC to talk to their health care provider if they must travel to those areas.
The multi-part plan is created to reduce mosquito populations and mobilize against transmission of Zika virus if an outbreak does occur.
While assuring residents that the virus is not spreading in the city, it says local mosquitoes are spreading other diseases like the West Nile Virus.
It’s a new threat we haven’t dealt with before and officials say it’s not a matter of if, but when the Zika virus surfaces in our state.
For those who do develop symptoms, the most common ones that characterize a Zika infection are red eyes, joint pain, rash and fever. Symptoms usually occur two to seven days after infection. Pregnant women are especially vulnerable since Zika is now proven to cause microcephaly, a birth defect, in infants.
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Brazil considers most of the cases of babies born with abnormally small heads since the start of a Zika outbreak previous year to be related to the virus.
