No Need for Health Emergency on Zika Virus in India

“The particular mosquitoes that are capable of transmitting the virus are not here”, he said.

The WHO says this viral outbreak should be considered a global emergency, but local physicians say the virus is not an issue in the states right now.

The organization is deciding how long the deferral for Zika should be, but officials say it would be much shorter than malaria, as the virus stays in the body for a much shorter amount of time. But public health officials don’t think infected blood would be a major source of risk because the virus usually clears from a person’s bloodstream in a week or less.

The Zika virus was first detected in 1947 and for decades only caused mild disease, but Chan noted that “the situation today is dramatically different”.

HOW TO AVOID IT: The Public Health Agency of Canada is advising pregnant women and those who plan to get pregnant to consider postponing travel to Zika-affected countries or regions unless absolutely necessary. There is no vaccine or treatment, if you get Zika the best you can do is get lots of fluids, rest and something for pain, but not aspirin or anti-inflammatory drugs.

In her first major address on the Zika outbreak, the head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan, said the mosquito-borne virus has gone from being “a mild threat to one of alarming proportions”.

Though, an estimated 80 percent of people infected have no symptoms.

The virus has been around for decades but it only appeared in the America’s previous year.

Evidence is strong Zika could be causing pregnant women to miscarry or deliver babies with abnormally small brains.

But even though the insect that carries the disease can be found in the Southeast, including SC, experts say for now, we don’t have anything to worry about.

Given the speed with which the virus has spread elsewhere, government and health officials naturally are concerned that the USA will begin seeing mosquito-borne cases, particularly in the South because of the conditions we described.

Just a few days ago there were only 12 or 15 reported cases of Zika patients with Guillain-Barré, he said. The only way the virus could become established in the county is if a traveler returning with the virus is bitten by an aedes mosquito here. The mother most likely had the infection while she was residing in Brazil.

The United States says it has two potential candidates for a vaccine for the Zika virus.