Zika virus found in Hawaiian baby, officials say

US health officials are considering a travel warning about Zika virus, the once obscure virus rapidly spreading across Latin America and the Caribbean that experts fear may cause birth defects. “It causes fever, headache, skin rash, red eyes, muscle ache, that sort of thing”.

The child’s mother was living in Brazil in May and probably was infected by a mosquito then, early in her pregnancy, the health department said. Brazilian health authorities have reported over 3,500 cases of microcephaly – infants born with abnormally small heads which can signal a seriously underdeveloped brain – in the last four months alone. However pregnant women are more likely to give birth to children with a condition known as microcephaly – characterized by a small head and undeveloped brain.

Zika virus outbreaks have occurred in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, and have been reported in some countries in the Americas.

Zika (ZEE’-ka) is the name of a virus discovered in a monkey in the Zika forest of Uganda in 1947.

“We are saddened by the events that have affected this mother and her newborn”.

The advisory applies to the following countries and territories: Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. In what may be a first, it warns citizens of the United States from entering a part of the United States, the unincorporated territory of Puerto Rico.

There is no vaccine to prevent Zika and no medicine available to treat it. But all were people who were infected during travel outside the country.

On Friday, the CDC came out with an alert asking pregnant women – at any stage of pregnancy – to postpone travel to 14 destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean. But there¿s been mounting evidence linking the virus to a surge of a rare birth defect in Brazil. The U.S. alert, however, is cautious to state that the relationship between the neurological disorder and the Zika virus, transmitted by the mosquito that also transmits dengue fever, has not been definitely established.

In its tests, the CDC examined tissue from two fetuses from miscarriages, as well as two full-term babies who had been born with microcephaly and died within 24 hours of birth, Dr. Petersen said.

As the number of reported Zika infections has risen, so have instances of microcephaly.

After that, the incidence gradually fell until November, when it started to increase again, which is considered normal because warmer climates favor the reproduction of dengue-transmitting mosquitos, Aedes aegypti.

Zika used to be the least harmful of the three diseases, because its symptoms are mild compared to the other two.

Zika can be transmitted by an Aedes species mosquito that has bitten an infected person, but cannot spread between humans. Zika virus was first detected in Brazil in May.

Zika virus is related to the dengue, yellow fever and West Nile viruses, which normally do not cause such damage; Zika is not closely related to rubella or cytomegalovirus, which are known to cause microcephaly.