Brazil trying to develop vaccine against Zika virus

Although the infection causes relatively mild symptoms, it’s suspected of causing more than 3,500 cases of microcephaly, a condition in which children are born with small heads.

Chikungunya is another mosquito-borne illness that spread rapidly in the Caribbean and Central America before popping up in 2014 among non-travelers in Florida.

Following the cases reported from Texas and Hawaii, Zika virus cases are now starting to be reported from other parts of USA, including Florida and IL.

NDTV explained that women who are expecting babies should avoid traveling to countries affected by the virus.

“The US Embassy to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean, and the OECS advises US citizens that the Ministry of Health of Barbados has confirmed the presence of the mosquito-borne Zika virus on the island…”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that the first Zika virus in Taiwan has been detected at the Taoyuan International Airport. Zika outbreaks have also been reported in Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Suriname and Venezuela, among other countries.

The CDC has recommended pregnant women who have traveled to countries affected by the virus to be screened. There was no chance a mosquito could have bitten them and spread it to others. In those that do, the worst of it involves fever, rash, joint pain, and red eyes – which usually lasts no more than a week.

There is no treatment and no vaccine for Zika virus.

The Zika virus is spread when a mosquito bites an infected person and then bites someone else. The situation is so grave in South America’s largest country that officials have asked Brazilian women to hold off getting pregnant, if possible, until the crisis is contained.

Dr. John Treanor says the concern over Zika virus is mainly its effect to unborn babies.

Health officials say there is no risk to the general United States public because all the cases so far have been in returning travellers who were likely infected by mosquitoes overseas rather than by mosquitoes in the U.S. mainland. Researchers at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal are in Brazil to train local researchers to combat the Zika virus epidemic. The CDC has issued a travel alert warning pregnant women to avoid visiting destinations the virus is circulating. The Fiocruz biomedical center in Curitiba announced it had found Zika in the placenta of a woman who had a miscarriage, proving the virus can reach the fetus.