Peru reports first patient carrying the Zika virus

A person infected with the virus can introduce the disease to a new region by being bitten by a member of an existing mosquito population that until then was unaffected by Zika.

There are so far no reports of death from the disease in the country.

The Boston Public Health Commission said Thursday an unnamed Boston resident contracted the virus while traveling overseas and is expected to make a full recovery.

Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that can cause fever, rash, muscle and joint aches and pinkeye.

US President Barack Obama spoke with his Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff to discuss shared concerns over the recent spread of the Zika virus in the Western Hemisphere. There is still much we don’t know about this virus. Pregnant women would be wise to rethink trips to Brazil and other Zika hot spots, and, of course, to take precautions to avoid mosquitoes.

Although the symptoms of the virus are relatively mild, it is believed to be associated with a surge in cases of microcephaly, a devastating condition in which a baby is born with an abnormally small head and brain. For that reason, the CDC is recommending that women who are pregnant or may become pregnant not to travel to the 24 countries where the disease is widespread.

Only 1 in 5 people show symptoms, the rest don’t even realise they have the virus because there are no symptoms.

Researchers suspect a link between the the birth defect microcephaly in infants and pregnant women with the virus.

In the United States, a total of 31 cases of Zika have been documented since previous year, all involving people who were infected while they were out of the country. “So right now the risk of contracting the Zika virus from a mosquito bite in Pennsylvania is not a possibility”.

The abortion debate has been reignited in Brazil amid fears about severe birth defects linked to the Zika virus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on January 28 that it would consider whether to declare Zika an worldwide health emergency, and estimated that as many as 4 million people could be affected by the virus as it spreads from Latin America and the Caribbean to North America in the coming months.