The mosquito-borne virus, a growing concern in South America and the southern United States, is believed to be linked to microcephaly, a neurological disorder where a baby’s head is significantly smaller and the brain is abnormally developed, according to the Mayo Clinic. That’s 0.06 percent of the GDP of Latin America and the Caribbean. The virus, mainly spread through mosquito bites, causes mild illness or no symptoms in most people.
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So far this year, possibly because of warmer-than-usual weather, local infections of dengue, a virus related to Zika, are far worse than in 2015.
– Two women had abortions, one after scans showed the fetus had an undeveloped brain.
Details of these cases were published online in the CDC’s MMWR journal on Friday. The CDC said it will distribute the test to qualified laboratories in the United States during the next two weeks.
THE FIRST case of sexually transmitted Zika has been recorded in France after a woman was infected after her partner returned from Brazil, health minister Marisol Touraine has confirmed.
Tainara Lourenco stands in the entrance of her stilt home with her hand on her baby bump, at a slum in Recife, Brazil, Jan. 29, 2016.
Those destinations are among the 30 places now on the CDC’s travel alert. The other woman is still pregnant.
Okanogan County Public Health officials are waiting for lab results on a few possible cases of the Zika virus. They are recommended to either use condoms, every time, or do not have sex during pregnancy. Organizers however have pointed that transmission risks should be low during the Olympics, scheduled during winter months in Brazil when is less frequent and the weather is cooler and drier.
Women who are trying to become pregnant should talk to their doctors before making the trip, the CDC advised.
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Obstetrics and gynaecology consultant Dr Milton Lum said more detailed guidelines were needed from the ministry to monitor the Zika virus and microcephaly cases here such as on spouses who have travelled to Zika areas and babies who were born to mothers who had been there. That includes the U.S.-owned Puerto Rico, where the local mosquito population has acquired the virus and continues to spread it to its human food supply. Miscarriages occur during the first trimester in 9 percent to 20 percent pregnancies, according to the CDC. Officials also have made Zika a reportable disease.
