Brazil Zika Cases Raise Concern Of Virus Transmission Beyond Mosquitoes

All of those who were diagnosed with the virus contracted it while traveling outside the country, in areas where transmission of the Zika virus is continuing, Scott said.

“Because this is so knew, we are learning more about Zika daily”, Frieden said during a teleconference Friday, noting that “we can’t make assumptions about how Zika spreads from one individual case”.

The outbreak of the Zika virus in Central and South America is now starting to impact on the travel plans of some New Brunswickers. If pregnant women are infected with the zika virus, especially in the first weeks of pregnancy, their children may develop microcephaly, a syndrome in which a baby is born with a smaller cranium.

Stories about the zika virus are rampant in the news and the World Health Organization has declared it a “public health emergency”.

According to Reuters, two cases of Zika transmission from the donated blood of people who have been bitten by the Zika-carrying Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes have been confirmed.

Scott’s executive order requires the state health officer to “take any action necessary to protect public health” and allows the commissioner of agriculture to issue a “mosquito declaration” in the affected counties to reduce populations of the insects that can spread the disease.

The Zika virus is transmitted to persons primarily through the bite of an infected mosquito (Aedes species).

“The Zika infection is only transmitted via Aedes mosquitoes and not by human-to-human contact, except possibly, very rarely, by sexual means”, Dr Weeramanthri said.

On Wednesday, the Georgia Department of Public Health announced that the first travel-related case of the Zika virus has been confirmed in the state.

The guidance, issued by the CDC, also said the men might consider abstaining or using condoms even during sex with a woman who isn’t pregnant.

Ministry of Health has begun moves to position itself to contain any possible outbreak of the Zika virus in the country. The most common symptoms of Zika virus disease are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes).

The president of Brazil’s top health research agency says the discovery of active Zika virus in saliva merits special precaution with pregnant women because of suspected links between Zika and birth defects.

For a full list of affected areas and more information on the Zika virus, check out the official website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We are asking those governments to go back and change those laws”, she said. “That’s not going to be effective”, said Chalmers Vasquez, operations manager for Miami-Dade County mosquito control.

“That is why we need to trust the institutions that have been set up to deal with it”.