Brazil finds Zika in microcephaly babies’ brains

Some experts have raised questions over what is behind the Brazilian surge in microcephaly, particularly due to the absence of a similar rise in cases in other areas hit by the virus. Mattos also said her data shows that microcephaly began to increase in the area beginning in October or November of 2014. The case has been reported in a tourist who was travelling from the Dominican Republic.

Russia’s sanitary and epidemiological watchdog Rospotrebnadzor on Monday confirmed the first case of Zika virus in the country. But in an abundance of caution, the organizations have issued alerts for pregnant women traveling to countries affected by the virus.

A female Aedes aegypti mosquito is seen in a test tube in a laboratory conducting research on preventing the spread of the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases, at the entomology department of the Ministry of Public Health in Guatemala City, February 4, 2016.

El Salvador has recorded more than 7,000 cases of the Zika virus since December and 13 Zika-infected pregnant women have had babies without defects.

Both Spaniards were asked to reply to comments last week by Spanish swimmer Mireia Belmonte, a two-time Olympic silver medalist in London in 2012, who said she “would not attend” the Olympics if she thinks her health is at risk.

Although there have not yet been any reported cases of Zika in Hawaii, the state will bolster its mosquito control and entomology staff (which was slashed during the recession, per the Associated Press). “I soon got the idea that blaming the Zika virus for this epidemic does not really get to the point”, Zink said. However, the health officials of the Southeast Asian country do not discount the fact that its vector, Aedes aegypti, is the same mosquito afflicting the deadly dengue fever in the tropical country. They suspect pyriproxyfen, a larvicide added to drinking water to stop the development of mosquito larva, as the cause of the birth defects.

The CING said that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the U.S. and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the molecular method is the official method to detect the virus. “We’re pretty confident that we can keep ourselves safe”.