First Case Of Zika Virus In Boston Is Confirmed

There is no vaccine or medications to treat the virus.

“The level of alarm is extremely high”, Chan said at a briefing on the virus on Thursday. “We’ve got the mosquitoes; they’ve got the disease”.

On the heels of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) statement that the Zika virus was “spreading explosively,” the Centre said it has constituted a special, technical group to monitor the spread of Zika in other countries.

BANGKOK/KUALA LUMPUR Tropical Southeast Asian countries said on Friday they were bracing for the mosquito-borne Zika virus, with Malaysia saying it could “spread quickly” if introduced, but Thailand appeared to be bucking the trend with just a handful of cases a year.

There is still no indication that the virus can be passed from human to human outside a mother’s womb, despite one case of it possibly being transmitted through sexual intercourse. Neither person was pregnant at the time of the illness and both have recovered.

Monday’s special session does not guarantee that a global emergency will be declared – World Health Organization has held 10 such meetings to assess the Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome coronavirus and no emergency has been announced.

Australians, particularly pregnant women, are warned of the effects of the mosquito-borne virus on their unborn babies.

Fauci said controlling mosquitoes that could carry Zika is key, and the United States has one big advantage.

The Aedes mosquito spreads diseases including Zika, dengue fever and chikungunya.

On Wednesday, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States agreed to form a common front to fight the virus that has been reported in at least 22 nations in the Americas.

It’s still unclear whether the virus has actually been spread through blood products, Philpott said, adding information on that likelihood would be made public when it became available.

“This is a reason to be extra cautious about mosquito avoidance, wear long clothing, and use mosquito repellant”, said Patrick. “We have no reason to believe that local transmission is a concern to Canadians”.

Health authorities have asked travelers from South and Central America who display symptoms such as fever and rashes to immediately report to health centers. Zika has been present in equatorial Africa and Asia since the 1950s.

It’s in 23 countries, including the US, where it is now being called a pandemic, with 31 cases in eleven states and D.C. since past year. No medical notes are required.

Air Canada is allowing woman and their travel companions to change bookings or receive a refund.

Clearly, there are too many unknowns here but what is without debate is the lack of probity and the haste to associate Zika virus with birth defects without any evidence when there are more evidence by correlation to associate the birth defects with the TDAP, GMO mosquitoes or a combination of all three.

Brazil experienced its first outbreak of Zika last year and has seen the number of microcephaly cases soar, from 163 a year on average to more than 3,718 suspected cases, according to the health ministry.

Time from exposure to symptoms is not known, but is likely to be a few days to a week.

“We are also developing a action plans for all obstetricians at Duke Health for screening and management of pregnancies that might be affected by the Zika virus”, Wolfe said.

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