Jan 27 A Minnesota woman who had traveled in Honduras has tested positive with the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus, federal and state health officials said on Wednesday.
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Municipal workers pause to refill the insecticide sprayer during an operation to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that transmits the Zika virus at the Imbiribeira neighborhood in Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016. Approximately one in five people infected with the virus shows symptoms.
The most crippling fear brought by Zika virus is the possibility that pregnant women infected are giving birth to babies with Microcephaly as in the many cases reported in Brazil.
Dr. Marcos Espinal, Director of PAHO/WHO’s Department of Communicable Disease, said the Zika virus is a new virus that the population of the Americas has no immunity to. It didn’t become a crisis until late in the year, when researchers made the link with a dramatic increase in reported cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect in which babies are born with unusually small heads and can face lasting developmental problems. Six of the 270 confirmed microcephaly cases were found to have the virus. Brazil urged its neighbours yesterday to unite in fighting the Zika virus, blamed for a surge in brain-damaged babies, as airlines offered refunds to pregnant mothers afraid to travel to the region. The virus was first identified in the Zika Valley, in central Africa, in 1947, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Zika, others say, may have been introduced to Brazil during the World Cup in 2014, but an worldwide canoe race held in Rio de Janeiro in August 2014 that included participants from four Pacific countries including French Polynesia may be more likely, the journal said. “Zika virus infection also may be associated with Guillain-Barre syndrome in adults, a serious form of paralysis”. There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, which is a close cousin of dengue and chikungunya and causes mild fever, rash and red eyes. There is no vaccine to prevent Zika either.
USA airline United Airlines also said this week it was allowing customers with reserved tickets for travel to impacted regions to postpone their trips or obtain refunds with no penalty.
Authorities in Argentina are testing a Colombian woman who lives in Buenos Aires to see if she is infected with the Zika virus.
Whereas Ebola required experts to track the contacts of infected individuals and specialized containment facilities, Zika will require a focus on mosquito abatement.
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Castro said the government also would distribute mosquito repellent to some 400,000 pregnant women who receive cash-transfer benefits.
