Brazil Health Union Cancels Strike to Battle Zika Outbreak

Scott directed the state’s surgeon general to declare the public health emergency, and for state officials to pay special attention to mosquito spraying in residential areas in those counties.

Late Tuesday, the Brazilian health ministry said the number of newborns with microcephaly linked to the virus had increased to 4,074 as of January 30, from 3,718 a week earlier.

Woods said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been sending CarePoint updates about the Zika virus, and that CarePoint has a procedure in place if pregnant women say they have recently traveled to a Zika-affected country. Vander Straten said patients diagnosed with Zika rarely require hospitalization and most of the time do not show symptoms at all.

The Zika virus is strongly suspected of causing birth defects in Brazil.

Zika is usually contracted via mosquito bites, so transmission of the illness through blood transfusions adds another concern to efforts to contain the outbreak.

Since the Bayou City breeds the same type of mosquitoes that are known to transmit the virus in Brazil and other Latin countries, this is worrisome for the warmer months.

The current Zika virus outbreak originated in Brazil in May of 2015.

All pregnant women who traveled to regions affected by the virus are now eligible for free testing regardless of whether they’re exhibiting symptoms, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office announced Thursday. There’s also the lesser risk of transmitting Zika through sex. “The first reported case of possible sexual transmission in 2008 was in a man who saw blood in his semen”, he says.

The CDC has also issued a travel alert for pregnant women to postpone travel to 29 countries in the Caribbean, Central and South America. The Zika virus, which is spread by mosquitoes, is feared to cause microcephaly, a condition that results in babies being born with unusually small heads and damaged brains.

The state had a spike in dengue cases in 2013, with 22 people contracting the virus in Martin County. So far, that case appears to be the only locally transmitted, as opposed to travel-related, case of Zika in the continental United States.

So far, there have been no cases reported where a person became infected without either traveling to a foreign country where the virus is active in mosquitoes or by having sexual contact with an infected person.

Marisol Touraine told reporters Wednesday that Martinique and French Guiana have had 2,500 potential cases and about 100 confirmed Zika cases since mid-December, including 20 pregnant women and two people suffering a temporary paralysis condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome.