New Study Links Zika Virus to Microcephaly

February 10 23:01 2016

The case, presented in detail, adds to growing evidence of a role played by the Zika virus in a startling rise in the number of cases in Brazil of microcephaly, a birth defect in which babies are born with undersized brains and skulls.

A pregnant woman in Queensland has tested positive for the Zika virus, the Queensland department of health has confirmed.

He has been quarantined, and is receiving treatment at the Ganxian People’s Hospital, where authorities said he is recovering with normal body temperature and a receding skin rash.

The first case of Zika virus is confirmed in Tennessee by the State Department of Health.

“The indirect way for infection would be for Hong Kong’s aedes mosquitoes to have bitten an infected person and then carried the virus to another person”, Ko said yesterday.

But physicians and public health officials still lack the basic scientific research to understand precisely how Zika spreads or to establish a causal connection with a concurrent spike in microcephaly, a congenital birth defect, and other neurological disorders following outbreaks of the virus in Brazil in 2015 and in French Polynesia in 2014.

“The risk of contracting Zika virus here in IN remains low, but we know that many residents are concerned”, Adams said.

Many who are infected with the Zika virus do not get sick.

The CDC has a webpage dedicated to providing information about the Zika virus, including areas where the virus is on-going.

However, Zika may endanger pregnancies, so women who are pregnant or who may become pregnant should be particularly careful to avoid the disease. “Pregnant women or people who develop a fever within one week of returning from an affected country should contact their personal health care professional for advice”.

Professor Cameron Simmons from the Doherty Institute for Infection told Guardian Australia that it was possible microcephaly, an extremely rare condition that was not monitored in South America before the Zika outbreak, was not connected, but it was also possible that the connection had not been picked up in previous outbreaks.

The Aedes aegypti mosquito is the carrier for the viruses that cause yellow fever dengue fever chinkungunya and Zika  Miami Herald

New Study Links Zika Virus to Microcephaly
 
 
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