Colombia Reports 13500 Cases of Mosquito-Borne Zika Virus

Now, two pregnant women in the continental US have tested positive for Zika virus, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health on Tuesday.

The mosquito-borne Zika virus has already infected more than 13,500 people in Colombia and could hit as many as 700,000, the health minister warns.

There is not now any vaccine against Zika, but the CDC recommends wearing mosquito repellant and sleeping under a mosquito net to avoid being bitten by the mosquitoes that carry the virus.

Guzman Marcelino reiterated the importance of eliminating the breeding sites for mosquitoes. It typically causes mild illness that can include fever, rash and joint pain. Microcephalic infants are born with abnormally shaped heads and often die young.

A baby whose mother had a Zika infection was recently born on Oahu with microcephaly.

An outbreak in the Western Hemisphere of the Zika virus could give countries including the United States new reasons to try wiping out mosquitoes with genetic engineering. It has spread across more than a dozen countries since it was first documented last May.

Microcephaly can be caused by a variety of environmental and genetic factors such as Downs syndrome; exposure to drugs, alcohol or other toxins in the womb; and rubella infection during pregnancy.

Officials there are urging women – who can wait – to hold off on becoming pregnant until the crisis is under control.

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said the increase in the cases reported in the USA may not be the result of more cases arriving in the U.S. All of the infected people in Florida contracted the virus while out of the country – in either Colombia or Venezuela.

Researchers from the Institute of Tropical Medicine of Sao Paulo, Brazil, said the virus might have travelled to Brazil with athletes or fans during the 2014 World Cup, or possibly by way of South America’s Pacific coast after an outbreak on Easter Island.

The agency on January 19 added care guidelines for pregnant women traveling to the same areas, including treatment advice for women confirmed to have Zika.

The Centers for Disease Control issued an alert to travelers this week, warning pregnant women about birth defects and miscarriages associated with the Zia virus.

The woman contracted the virus in her home country and then became ill while a visitor in Bergen County in late November, according to a department spokeswoman.