CDC: Minnesota Woman Tests Positive for Zika Virus

This is because of the greater frequency of outbreaks in countries like Brazil, where 3,5000 babies born with microcephaly – an underdeveloped brain and head, a birth defect caused by the disease – are being tested for the virus.

The arrival of Zika in Brazil previous year initially caused little alarm as the virus’ symptoms are generally much milder than those of dengue. “It would require an Aedes mosquito biting a Zika infected person and then biting others”.

Cases of the Zika virus continue to grow, with health departments reporting at least 19 people diagnosed in the US and 19 people infected in Puerto Rico. There is no vaccine to prevent Zika or medicine to treat the infection.

A mosquito-born virus making headlines in South America and Mexico has health officials asking people to be vigilant when traveling to these areas.

“The president emphasized the need to accelerate research efforts to make available better diagnostic tests, to develop vaccines and therapeutics, and to ensure that all Americans have information about the Zika virus”, the White House said.

Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama), Daniel R Lucey and Lawrence O Gostin, said the World Health Organisation (WHO) needs to act immediately to combat the virus.

Since first being detected in South America less than year ago, the virus has spread through the tropical regions of the continent and Central America.

US SCIENTISTS HAVE warned that the Zika brain-shrinking virus has “explosive pandemic potential”.

Health authorities in Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, El Salvador and Jamaica are warning women to avoid having children if they can not avoid mosquito bites. Asking the organization to heed the lessons of Ebola, researchers called on the United Nations agency to convene an emergency session of health and infectious disease experts to consider how to respond to the outbreak. For now, Tache recommends any pregnant woman who has been to an infected area should see their doctor, even if they don’t think they’ve been bitten by a mosquito.