National Institutes of Health officials think a Zika vaccine could be developed in three to four years, but Congress’s watchdog is skeptical.
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The news comes the same day as the city’s first confirmed locally-acquired dengue fever case – which is separate to the person infected with Zika.
The man, who was tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had traveled to Guatemala, according to the Southern Nevada Health District.
The research team involved in the study noted that Brazil saw an increase in air travel passengers coming into the country from late 2012 to 2015, mostly because of popular sports events, which leads them to believe that Zika came in during the 2013 Confederations Cup.
The authors said Zika circulated in Brazil for a year or more before being identified. For this reason, many people might not realize they have been infected. However, there was little research to support the claim that Zika causes microcephaly until a group of scientists from Johns Hopkins, Florida State and Emory Universities discovered that the virus affects a type of brain tissue. “We know that there have been reports of Zika infection in places like Thailand and the Philippines and Indonesia, but there is no systematic survey or data from these locations”, he said.
“This is typical of viruses, like Zika [which cause only mild symptoms]”, says Duane Gubler, an emerging disease expert at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.
The World Health Organization (WHO) had declared the spread of the Zika virus and the birth defects associated with it as an global health emergency.
Department of Health and County of Maui staff and volunteers will be conducting site visits in various areas along the North Shore of Maui this weekend to assess problem areas for mosquito breeding and inform residents of the need to take precautions against mosquito-borne viruses. Zika virus was discovered in 1947 in Uganda.
Hospedales said this country is one of 15 Caribbean nations that have reported cases of the Zika virus, with an overall total of 38 countries globally.
It also can be sexually transmitted, if there is sexual contact with someone who is exposed or already infected.
Zika virus is carried by certain species of Aedes mosquitos which do not live in Montana or our region.
“Men could infect women on their return”, she said. It has also been very hard to test Zika due to a lack of commercially available tests.
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Mar 25, 2016- The Zika virus arrived in South America a year before the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, say British and Brazilian scientists.
