Johnson County reports 1 travel-related case of Zika

However, the World Health Organization counselled pregnant women to avoid travelling to areas with ongoing Zika outbreaks, and to practice safe sex during their pregnancy if their partners live in or travelled to the affected areas. “Dozens or hundreds of infected babies will be born with microcephaly”.

In microcephaly, a newborn’s head is smaller than normal, with the potential for long-term neurological damage. Majority are in Latin America, the Caribbean and the South Pacific.

Aside from pregnant women, men can also transfer the Zika virus via unprotected sex.

Frieden said blood donations are the best real-time indicator of how the virus is spreading. The doctors, however, think that “it is critically important” to continue observing babies from Zika-affected mothers to ensure that they don’t display other birth defects, Reuters reported. “That’s why we’re so concerned about protecting pregnant women”. Aedes albopictus mosquito populations occur in 1,241 counties from 40 states and the District of Columbia.

Frieden said officials and the community can take measures to reduce the risk of mosquito exposure. Frieden said that though it’s not a stand-in for a serologic survey and doesn’t reflect a random sample, “it gives us a window to see what’s happening with infection rates”.

“What we’re seeing is a very consistent pattern underscoring the fact that Zika causes microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities”, Jamieson told Lena H. Sun from The Washington Post. “They think it’s something that’s risky, but they really don’t know about it”.

“The availability of an investigational test to screen donated blood for Zika virus is an important step forward in maintaining the safety of the nation’s blood supply, especially for those US territories already experiencing active transmission”, Peter Marks, MD, PhD, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a press release.

“Through the interventions we have in place, the blood supply is being protected in Puerto Rico”, Kuehnert said. The test is made by Swiss drug giant Roche and has been used to test donated blood in Puerto Rico since early April.

So far in the United States, Puerto Rico – a U.S. commonwealth in the Caribbean – is the hardest-hit area, with almost 1,400 cases reported. “And in fact, there is no evidence of any local Zika activity”, said Garcia. Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, which is based in Houston and serves most of eastern Texas, has screened 9,000 blood donations since May 23 and found no positives.

JCDHE is conducting a study right now with the University of Kansas to determine how many mosquitoes who can carry Zika are present in Johnson County.

Zika, which is spread by mosquitoes, causes microcephaly, a condition which causes the skull of a fetus to collapse around its underdeveloped brain.

The CDC established the registry to monitor pregnancies for a broad range of poor outcomes linked to Zika.

The Obama administration has requested $1.9 billion in emergency Zika funding.