Time To Worry About Zika Virus?

The absence of vaccines, specific treatments and rapid diagnostic tests for the disease means it has the potential to spread internationally.

Peru has registered its first case of the Zika virus in a 17-year-old Venezuelan boy, the country’s Health Minister Anibal Velasquez announced Friday. According to the CDC, Zika virus infections rarely end in hospitalization, and the symptoms generally go away after a few days or weeks.

It also has a tick-borne encephalitis virus vaccine in the pre-clinical stage, funded by a grant from the infectious disease arm of the National Institutes of Health. The company is offering pregnant passengers and their travel partners refunds for tickets to Zika-affected regions. Over 30 people in the US have been infected with the virus, including three in the Houston area.

Taylor stressed that while Zika has an association with microcephaly – a condition where a baby is born with an abnormally small head – it has not been proven yet.

These Zika birth defects most likely happen when a mosquito carrying the virus bites a woman early in her pregnancy. “We’re cooperating with schools to clean up the environment and eliminate the nests of the mosquitoes”, he explained.

The World Health Organization predicts as many as four million people could become infected in the Americas.

The officials said the number of pregnant women confirmed to have the zika virus has shot up to about 1900.

Other Latin American countries are also stepping up mosquito eradication efforts.

Legacy Community Health warned pregnant patients to avoid travel to countries on Centers for Disease Control’s Zika Virus warning list.

The disease has spread across South and Central America with a handful of cases being reported in the UK, US and Germany.

On Wednesday, federal Health Minister Jane Philpott reported that two British Colombians contracted the virus – one after returning from El Salvador and the other after coming back from Columbia.