“Pregnant women and their male partners with whom they are sexually intimate who travel to a tropical and subtropical climate where the Aedes mosquitoes are found should not only take precautions against being bitten while traveling, but they should be tested and take appropriate steps to prevent sexual transmission of the virus, ” Bennett said. The baby is the first to have shown signs of severe tissue swelling outside of the central nervous system (CNS) – whereas previously congenital Zika virus was thought to only attack the brain and CNS.
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The new study reports the case of a 20-year-old woman who had an abnormal fetal ultrasound in her 18th week of pregnancy.
A number of airlines have expressed concern that the rapidly spreading Zika virus may be affecting travel, the International Air Transport Association’s Director General and CEO Tony Tyler told reporters on Thursday.
“It sounds scary because it’s the first case in the state”, said Linda Vail, health officer with Ingham County, where the case was confirmed on Wednesday, Feb. 24.
Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus actually causes microcephaly, a condition marked by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems.
And, yes, 35 percent of respondents said they believed genetically modified mosquitoes have caused the spread of the virus.
The Zika project was funded through a philanthropic grant from L.E. and Virginia Simmons, a local couple, and is part of a larger effort at Houston Methodist to bolster hospital-based rapid response systems for infectious diseases.
The Florida Health Department recommends that women who are pregnant or are thinking about becoming pregnant postpone travel to Zika affected areas.
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Video: What Is The Zika Virus? Researchers have confirmed more than 460 of the cases in Brazil as microcephaly and identified evidence of Zika infection in 41 of these cases, but have not proven that Zika can cause the condition. The CDC is now investigating about 14 reports of the virus being transmitted between humans during sex. But given that many infections are asymptomatic, they suggested that pregnant women in high-risk areas who have stillbirths should be examined for signs of the virus.
