The recent outbreak of Zika virus in Central and South America spurred the World Health Organization to declare the virus an global public health emergency prompting widespread concern – especially among pregnant women.
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“Unlike the relationship between the Zika virus and microcephaly, which has had its confirmation shown in tests that indicated the presence of the virus in samples of blood, tissue and amniotic fluid, the association between the use of pyriproxyfen and microcephaly has no scientific basis”, the statement said. Despite the alarming rate Zika has spread and the links to birth defects that have yet to be proven, the Zika virus in itself is not a very fatal disease.
Two more cases of the Zika virus have been reported in OH, one involving a Licking County man who was in Haiti while another involves a woman that travelled from Guyana.
The Zika virus is transmitted through sex and by mosquitoes in the daytime.
It can cause mild fever, rash and red eyes, although around 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms. And the eggs produced by female mosquitoes mating with Wolbachia-infected males are infertile, which they said had reduced mosquito populations.
“Further, a case definition will be prepared to learn in depth about the virus, symptoms and treatment”, said a senior state official.
“To those who are not in a hurry to get pregnant, maybe they can postpone and wait next year when we know more about the virus”, Health Minister Janet Garin said in a radio interview on Sunday, suggesting they practice family planning methods.
Health authorities must get birth control out to these women, governments must ease restrictions on abortions, and the conditions that allow for the mosquitoes to flourish must be cleaned up.
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The zika virus has been around for decades in remote parts of the world. In Florida, none of the cases have been in pregnant women. While the zika virus has not yet come to mosquitoes in New Jersey, most experts expect it to. CDC Director Tom Frieden told members of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee that the virus was found in the tissue of two babies who died of microcephaly in Brazil.
