Protect against Zika virus during spring break travel

Florida Surgeon General and Secretary of Health Dr. John Armstrong said on Wednesday that several women who have traveled to countries with local transmission of Zika have received antibody testing. The CDC believes the 14 new cases may have been acquired by sexual transmission.

NY – U.S. health officials are investigating more than a dozen possible Zika infections that may have been spread through sex.

State officials say they have confirmed the first case of Zika virus in a MI resident.

Zika virus is spread to people primarily through the bite of infected mosquitoes, and has been spreading through countries such as Brazil.

The women had not recently traveled to places where the virus is widely circulating, but they’d had sex with male partners who had recently returned from such travel and had Zika symptoms.

Brazil now has the most serious outbreak of the Zika virus, and thousands of babies of mothers with the disease have been born with a birth defect called microcephaly, which causes small heads and deformed brains. If you have plans to travel to areas where Zika virus is present, take precautions to prevent mosquito bites.

The new tests can be performed using blood, amniotic fluid, urine or spinal fluid. Officials said tests confirmed the women “had a history with the virus”. According to the CDC these women only known risk fact was sexual contact with their infected partners. It also issued a notice through their Health Alert Network that notified health care providers, labs and local, state and federal public health employees about urgent public health information. However, The health Department declined to identify where they were traveling.

Symptoms of Zika, which is milder than dengue, include fever, headache, sore red eye, rash, tiredness and aches and pains.

Currently, the CDC is advising that men with pregnant partners abstain from sexual activity or use barrier protection for the duration of the pregnancy.

Georgia had its first case of travel-related Zika this month when an unidentified person returning from Colombia tested positive for exposure to the virus. Brazil has more than 1 million infections and the virus, which is now found in 36 countries, is exploding across the Americas.