CDC confirms 6 cases of Zika virus in Texas

“That is Brazil’s great sin”, said Gubio Soares, a virologist at the Federal University of Bahia who was the first to isolate the Zika virus in Brazil, in April a year ago.

Since May 2015, PAHO said 22 countries and territories in the Americas have reported local transmission of Zika virus infections. The minister called for increased focus on prevention to control the spread of the Aedes mosquito that breeds in clean water and is implicated in the spread of the Zika virus.

Ebola killed more than 11,000 people in Africa, however, the Zika Virus is scary because not everyone that has it knows they have it due to the limited symptoms the Zika Virus presents.

For most people a Zika virus infection causes no symptoms at all. In some countries, the virus is so widespread that national governments have recommended women not to get pregnant for a few months, or in the case of El Salvador, for two years.

The World Health Organization’s emergency committee will on Monday debate whether a Zika virus outbreak suspected of causing a surge in serious birth defects in South America should be considered a global health emergency.

“What we have at this moment, in this country, is a group of women who’s in fear of getting pregnant and not knowing what will happen during the pregnancy”, a law professor at Brasilia University told the BBC.

Secretary for Food and Health Dr. Ko Wing-man also said that because only up to one quarter of the infected persons might develop relatively mild illness, “the attention was therefore not too big”.

But WHO sought to play down these fears, saying there was no reason to suspect culex mosquitoes are transmitting the virus.

There is some evidence that in rare occasions Zika virus may be sexually transmitted, however, some scientists feel this needs additional confirmation. After a couple weeks virus is undetectable in the blood.

Other complications are also suspected of being linked to the virus, including Guillain-Barré syndrome, an autoimmune syndrome.

Those who are planning on becoming pregnant or are already pregnant are urged to cancel their trips to areas at high risk for the Zika Virus. Experts do not believe there will be widespread outbreaks in the United States for several reasons.

More than 33 countries and regions have reported infection cases.

The spread of Zika across the globe. The head of infection and immuno-biology at the Wellcome Trust, Mike Turner expresses concern with the Zika Virus affecting pregnant women.

The aim was to release only male Aedes mosquitoes into the wild and they would in turn produce offspring with their virus carrying female counterparts.