Zika virus can spread to countries having Aedes mosquito

Dr. Anthony Fauci says he hopes the Zika virus can be kept at bay with “mosquito vector control”.

But those with more severe microcephaly can experience seizures, intellectual disability and problems with development of speech, hearing, movement and feeding.

“I don’t have much time left to be a mother, but I’m really afraid” architect Ana Paula Coutinho, 47, says.

There is no treatment or vaccine for Zika, which is in the same family of viruses as dengue.

Earlier this month, the CDC said pregnant women should consider postponing trips to more than a dozen countries with Zika and advised women trying to get pregnant or thinking of getting pregnant to speak to their doctor before traveling and to take extra precautions to avoid mosquito bites. Outbreaks of Zika virus disease have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Southern Asia and Western Pacific.

Scientists are searching for a vaccine and believe they may have two possible candidates but they may not be available for several years and at the moment there is nothing to stop the virus.

Since May 2015, PAHO has issued monthly epidemiological alerts advising countries what to do if they have Zika cases, and how to monitor and prepare for its eventual arrival. “We don’t have the mosquitoes, we don’t have the virus”. For the 20% who display symptoms, the illness is mild and may include fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis. However, there have been reports of increased cases of a birth defect known as microcephaly that may be associated with Zika virus infection among pregnant women.

But 19 cases of the virus have been confirmed in Puerto Rico, Schuchat says, and some of those people had not traveled to countries that have Zika outbreaks.

“We are aware of one case in MA, a person who had traveled to an area where we already know Zika is being transmitted”, Dr. Larry Madoff, director of the Division of Epidemiology and Immunization at the Department of Public Health told the State House News Service.

The Zika virus is thought to cause brain damage in babies called microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with abnormally small heads.

The World Health Organization has warned that Zika, which has been linked to thousands of birth defects in Brazil, is likely to spread to most of the Americas. Brazil has been the nation most affected.

Zika was first discovered in a monkey in Uganda in 1947.

Zika is transmitted primarily by Aedes mosquitos, which also transmit chikungunya and dengue viruses and which are present in every country of the Americas except Canada and continental Chile.

– One case of possible person-to-person sexual transmission has been described but the Pan American Health Organization said more evidence is needed to confirm whether sexual contact is a means of Zika transmission.

Travel experts say this comes at the busiest time of year, when business doubles in the winter months, but there are options for people who were planning to travel but don’t want to take the risk.

“Brazil is experiencing ongoing transmission of the mosquito-borne Zika virus”.