Airlines Refunding Tickets For Pregnant Passengers Flying To Infected Areas

Lindmeier said it was not yet clear whether the virus affecting Brazil and other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean was a mutated version of the virus that has caused prior outbreaks.

However, Virginia Health Commissioner Dr Marissa Levine said the Virginia resident traveled to a country where the Zika virus transmission is ongoing.

The World Health Organization says Zika is rapidly spreading in the Americas because it is new to the region, people aren’t immune to it, and the Aedes aegypti mosquito that carries it is just about everywhere – including the southern United States.

The disease has been linked to miscarriages and microcephaly – which can cause serious developmental delays and babies born with abnormally small heads – though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website notes that additional studies of such reports, initially out of Brazil, are needed.

Fears are growing across the nation as the zika virus begins to pop up.

Still, as with any new vaccine, the first step for researchers is to devise a vaccine that triggers a response from the human immune system that can protect people from future infections, Adalja said.

The virus may also be spread during sexual intercourse.

The WHO said that countries with Aedes mosquitoes will most likely be affected with more outbreaks.

Have there been cases in the U.S.?

On Tuesday, the CDC added the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic to its list of countries and territories with Zika transmissions, bringing the total to 24.

The WHO advised pregnant women planning to travel to areas where Zika is circulating to consult a healthcare provider before traveling and on return.

The virus is spread by a certain type of mosquito that hasn’t been seen here and isn’t expected to be either according to epidemiologist Dr. David Patrick with the BC Centres for Disease Control. Also Cape Verde off the coast of western Africa and Samoa in the South Pacific. Experts said if you’ve traveled recently and feel any of these symptoms to reach out to the County Health Department for testing within seven days. LATAM, which includes both LAN and TAM airlines, says its policy will cover travel to Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, French Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Suriname and Venezuela.

Zika cases have been reported in several USA states, including Texas.

A city worker fumigates insecticide to combat the Aedes Aegypti… Shifter notes that Zika cases were found in one of the poorest regions of northeast Brazil, where the health systems are most fragile. Brazilian officials have linked the tropical illness to birth defects. Although Zika typically causes only mild symptoms, outbreaks in Brazil have coincided with a marked increase in microcephaly – or unusually small head size – in newborns. There appears to be nearly no native immunity-meaning that epidemics affecting millions, as is occurring in Brazil, would happen here.