Zika threat to Canada low: health officer

Dr. Gregory Taylor said there have been four recent cases in Canada – two in British Columbia, one in Alberta and a newly disclosed case in Quebec, all of them involving people who recently travelled to affected areas.

“We are closely monitoring the situation and all necessary steps have been initiated to ensure that India is well prepared in case of any eventuality”, Nadda said. Recently, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institutes for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke on the reality of the progress in producing a vaccine for the Zika Virus.

Officials from Brazil and worldwide health organizations are trying to determine if a widespread outbreak of the virus there is related to a seemingly sudden upswing in cases of birth defects.

Although the mosquito-borne virus’s symptoms are relatively mild, it is believed to be linked to a surge in cases of microcephaly, a devastating condition in which a baby is born with an abnormally small head and brain.

The CDC advises pregnant women or women who may become pregnant to avoid travelling to known Zika-infected countries. Hospitalization for the Zika virus is uncommon.

The difficulty is that people infected with the virus usually have no symptoms.

“As part of Team GB’s overall planning, our medical team has been liaising with specialists at the London School of Tropical Medicine, to ensure that team members are given the most up-to-date travel medicine advice, which includes information on bite prevention strategies”.

Many more scientific leaders have addressed the time needed to create the Zika Virus vaccine and it won’t be anytime soon. The World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control are attempting to act swiftly in alerting expecting mothers by considering the Zika Virus epidemic a worldwide health emergency.

On Friday, the CDC included the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic to that list.

“A causal relationship between Zika virus infection and birth malformations and neurological syndromes has not yet been established, but is strongly suspected”.

The virus has also been associated with a rise of microcephaly birth defect cases.

The Caribbean country has reported 10 confirmed cases, none of them involving pregnant women. “Because it is not mosquito season in Virginia, this individual with Zika virus infection poses no risk to other Virginians”, said State Health Commissioner Marissa J. Levine, MD, MPH, FAAFP.

Nigeria’s Health Ministry is warning citizens against traveling to Latin America because of the Zika virus outbreak, and is especially recommending that pregnant women not go there.

This is a big deal, as it means that countries struggling to contain the Zika virus, like Brazil, can control the population of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the aggressive breed that has led to the rapid spread of the virus.