NC reports first travel-related case of Zika virus

But despite the scare, the World Bank says the impact from the epidemic is likely to be small.

The government will distribute 500,000 molecular biology test kits this year for diagnosing Zika in 27 labs around Brazil, which will improve its grasp of the outbreak, he said.

Another 3,935 suspected cases of microcephaly, in which a baby is born with an abnormally small head and often incomplete brain development, are being investigated. It’s the first confirmed case of Zika in North Carolina. “The next step will be to do case-control studies to estimate the potential risk of microcephaly after Zika virus infection during pregnancy, other fetal or neonatal complications, and long-term outcomes for infected symptomatic and asymptomatic neonates”.

As of today, 36 countries are known to have transmission of the virus, including 28 in the Americas, Aylward said.

The CDC is advising pregnant women to delay travel to foreign countries where Zika is being transmitted. That suggests that the virus could cross the placental barrier and possibly infect the fetus. One patient had sexual contact with another infected individual; the other patient contracted the virus while in Venezuela. For this reason, on February 1, 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) [url=http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=40749504&msgid=412532&act=GMUF&c=917709&destination=http%3A%2F%2F www.who.int%2Femergencies%2Fzika-virus%2Fen%2F t=_blank]declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Testing for the Zika virus is available at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and will be performed only on returning travellers with an illness compatible with Zika.

Quarantine personnel are also required to be on alert for arriving passengers from Zika-affected countries and for airline companies to undertake measures like disinfecting the aircraft against the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits the disease. This strain could also be useful in preventing the dengue virus from developing resistance to Wolbachia, “ABC News” reported. Because of this, Zika can go unreported.

“As long as the outbreak continues in Central and South America and the Caribbean, we expect to see more travel-related Zika virus infections in our state”, said Randall Williams, MD, State Health Director.

In that study, researchers obtained blood samples from a random selection of 557 residents to arrive at an “estimated ratio” of a single symptomatic person for every 4.4 people who showed laboratory signs of having been infected with Zika but showed no signs of sickness.