US plans to fund Zika virus study of Olympic team

The patient in the case contracted the virus while traveling outside of the country. Its aims to improve our understanding of how Zika persists in the body and to identify any risk factors that influence the course of infections. However, there is still a lot we don’t know.

Money for the effort will come from the $377,376 awarded to Tennessee this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There are 61 countries or areas that have reported indigenous cases of Zika, and the CDC has raised its travel advisory to “alert” for 56 countries or areas where the virus is spreading, including Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Maldives.

To date, 935 cases of Zika have been reported in the USA, according to the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Male partners of pregnant women should consider the possibility that they could infect their partners via sex if they become infected.

Two cases of imported Zika virus in the Cayman Islands have been confirmed by public health officials.

There is no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat Zika virus.

According to the Associated Press, $350,000 dollars will go to state’s public health department, and another $200,000 to the City of Chicago Public Health Department.

“While the Zika virus is mainly transmitted through Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, other modes of transmission, in particular sexual transmission, have been documented”, he said.

For most, Zika symptoms are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes).

For more information about Zika and pregnancy, visit the CDC page for Pregnant Women.

Carried by the Asian tiger mosquito, Zika has spread throughout Latin and South America and the Caribbean.

Zika is linked with microcephaly, a condition where the size of an infant’s head is smaller than normal, because of slowed or incomplete brain development.

There are 209 cases in Florida not involving pregnant women. While the illness typically resolves within a week, some severe cases may require hospitalization. Only 20 percent of those who contract the virus display symptoms, and World Health Organization advised pregnant women not to travel to these known affected areas.

The few tests that are now available, diagnose Zika using the genetic material from the virus or the antibodies the body creates to fight it.