Centre forms technical group to monitor Zika virus situation

Three people in New York City, including one pregnant woman, have been diagnosed with the virus, health officials said Thursday.

Five people in Germany have Zika virus infections, having visited Latin America and the Caribbean in recent months, German health officials say.

Health officials are advising pregnant women and those planning pregnancy to adopt necessary anti-mosquito precautions, and consider deferring trips to areas with Zika virus transmissions.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff says her government has launched a nationwide operation to eliminate breeding areas for the mosquito that transmits the Zika virus, which researchers in have linked to a rare birth defect. The most significant concern is for pregnant women who become infected, as there is growing evidence that the Zika virus appears to be associated with microcephaly (small head and brain development) in newborns and other adverse pregnancy outcomes in women infected during pregnancy.

The disease is not believed to spread via human contact and the mosquitoes believed to carry it are not found in NY. The World Health Organization said the virus is spreading “explosively”. There have been reports of microcephaly and other poor pregnancy outcomes in babies of mothers who were infected with Zika virus while pregnant. The virus is primarily spread by Aedes aegypti, the type of mosquito that also spreads yellow fever and dengue.

On Wednesday, a hospital in Denmark said a tourist who had traveled to South and Central America has tested positive for the incurable disease.

A Quebec woman has recovered from the Zika virus.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, with the U.S. National Institutes of Health, said the NIH is “working with partners to accelerate research, disease diagnosis, vaccines and therapeutics”.

Symptoms of infection may include fever, joint pain, itching, rash, conjunctivitis or red eyes, headache, muscle pain and eye pain. Although the risk of virus establishment in Canada is low, there is ongoing risk to Canadians travelling to endemic regions. While the disease is typically mild, there is no vaccine, cure or treatment. The mosquito transmits the Zika virus, as well as Dengue.

“I think it’s possible that there’s only a very loose correlation between the Zika virus and microcephaly”, Drosten said. “When women are desperate … they will seek out their own solutions”, Carmen Barroso, Western Hemisphere director for the International Planned Parenthood Federation, told the Daily News.

The CDC has issued a travel alert for more than 20 countries including Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela.