Health officials are asking Pennsylvanians to pay attention to travel advisories as they test six to eight people for the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
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If scientists succeed, it could represent a major breakthrough for public health authorities in Brazil looking for a definitive connection between a Zika epidemic in the country and an outbreak of thousands of cases of the birth defect microcephaly.
Loren Robinson of the Pennsylvania Department of Health said Friday that each person being tested had traveled to an area affected by Zika.
The teenager, whose name has not been released, arrived in the Peruvian capital city of Lima last week from Colombia, said the minister, adding that the patient was hospitalized after showing signs of the virus including fever, rashes and joint pain, among other symptoms.
Health officials suspect that Zika is linked to a wave of birth defects in Brazil in which babies have small heads.
The worldwide response to controlling the spread of the virus is crucial to much of the United States, where mosquitoes are pests, especially South Florida, where Zika could become a year-round threat if it were to spread to the mosquito population.
“As a normal part of Team GB’s overall planning our medical team has been liaising with specialists in this area to ensure that prospective team members are given the most up-to-date travel medicine advice, which includes information on bite prevention strategies”. According to the CDC, it is now in more than 20 countries, spread primarily by the same kind of mosquito – the Aedes species – that transmits other tropical illnesses such as dengue and yellow fever. Although arrival of the virus in Brazil was associated with a marked increase in the number of infants born with microcephaly, a definitive link to the Zika virus has yet to be established.
In the USA, researchers have two potential candidates for a Zika vaccine and may begin clinical trials in people by the end of this year, but a vaccine will not be available for public use for several years, officials recently announced.
“So that is really where we are putting the emphasis right now”. Santos says as many as 600,000 people could be infected when the virus reaches its peak.
President Barack Obama hosted a meeting of federal health specialists on the issue earlier this week.
The agency said Thursday that the goal is to protect the blood supply in the United States.
One of the challenges of identifying the Zika virus is that the symptoms are so mild.
Direct Relief is also providing mosquito nets in Haiti.
The World Health Organization says it is convening an emergency committee on Monday to decide if the Zika virus outbreak should be declared an global health emergency.
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“The level of alarm is extremely high”, said Margaret Chan, WHO’s director-general.
