In addition, another Zika-infected traveler – someone in Florida, who recently had been to Central America – has been diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a CDC official said.
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Frieden said the United States should “expect a lot more travel-related cases” as the weeks and months go by.
The Zika virus has many Southern Californians concerned, especially those with ties to the hardest hit nation: Brazil.
RIO DE JANEIRO Fear of the mosquito-borne Zika virus has Brazilians rushing to buy repellant, creating a shortage of some brands on pharmacy shelves and boosting sales for the industry – a trend some producers are preparing for elsewhere as the outbreak spreads.
Dr. Peter Hotez, one of the world’s leading experts on the Zika virus and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine Baylor College of Medicine, says safety concerns for drug tests on pregnant women will prolong the search for Zika vaccine. Because the virus is spread by mosquitoes, Fulbright says don’t panic.
But since October, Brazil has reported 404 confirmed cases of microcephaly – up from 147 in 2014 – plus 3,670 suspected cases.
“I do have a friend who was planning on getting pregnant”, Garrett said. “Follow-up testing around the middle of the second trimester of pregnancy is also recommended, because of an ongoing risk of Zika virus exposure”, the agency wrote. A rainy, humid winter already had mosquito control officials on alert statewide and door-to-door inspections have been increased in neighborhoods where 12 Zika cases have been reported, all from people who have traveled overseas.
A new set of interim guidelines was released, advising against sexual activity for some pregnant women.
Regina Rodrigues Alves, who hawks kitty-ear tiaras, pirate eye patches, made-in-China plastic crowns and other Carnival essentials at a stand in Rio’s beachfront Ipanema neighborhood, says sales have been appreciably down from previous year. He said he “lamented material and opinions in the press” speculating that South America’s first Olympics might be called off. He likely caught the virus from a mosquito in Thailand, where there have been cases in the past.
“The gold standard for sexual transmission is finding infectious virus in the donor, and finding very similar viral genomes in the recipient”, Vincent Racaniello, a virologist at Columbia University, told Quartz in an email.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday revised its guidelines for pregnant women to include a recommendation that even those without symptoms of the Zika infection be tested after returning from affected areas.
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Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr Jeanette Young, has urged pregnant Queensland women not to travel to places where there have been Zika outbreaks.
