3 pregnant women test positive for Zika in Florida

If confirmed, the high number would have major implications for controlling the virus, which is usually spread by mosquito bites. These males are released into the target area, where they compete with wild males to mate with the wild females.

The agency in early February revised its guidelines for pregnant women to include a recommendation that even those without symptoms of the Zika virus should be tested after returning from affected areas.

Zika disease is caused by the Zika virus that is spread to people primarily through the bite of an infected mosquito of the Aedes species.

Although Zika is not now being spread by mosquitoes in the continental United States, cases have been reported in returning travelers.

At least 29 countries in the Americas have experienced Zika outbreaks. The mosquito transmitting the virus can be found throughout the southeastern United States, spanning from eastern Texas to Florida and SC.

One in 5 who contract the virus will typically get sick, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tests have not been completed for their male partners.

That case was linked to sexual contact with an infected partner.

It said: “Eight other cases are still under investigation”.

Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that causes symptoms of fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes. But in Brazil, health officials are investigating a possible connection between the virus and babies born with brain defects and abnormally small heads.

The state’s acting chief health officer said the spraying was a precaution aimed at preventing mosquitoes from spreading the man’s infection.

There have also been rare reports of patients developing Guillain-Barre Syndrome after being infected with Zika. The CDC advises women who are pregnant to consider postponing travel to any area where Zika virus transmission is ongoing.

“This might be something that’s happening much more often than anybody had previously suspected”, he says.

There is no vaccine for Zika. These mosquitoes aren’t established in Iowa, but are in areas of ongoing Zika transmission – Brazil, Mexico, the Caribbean (including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), Central and South America and the Pacific Islands. “We have learnt lessons from dengue and from chikungunya outbreaks in the past, so we should expect to see more cases, we should expect this is going to be a long journey”.