CDC Expands Travel Warning for Zika Virus

A pregnant Berkeley woman is reportedly being tested for Zika, the mosquito-borne viral infection sweeping through Latin America and the Caribbean linked to serious brain defects in infants.

Pregnant women are being warned not to travel to the Olympics in Brazil after a virus causing thousands of babies to be born with unusually small heads swept through the region.

Research is under way into the effects of the Zika virus on pregnant women and newborn babies; information about the possible transmission of Zika from infected mothers to babies during pregnancy or childbirth is “very limited”, PAHO says. Babies with the condition have abnormally small heads, resulting in developmental issues and, in some cases, death.

If it will be necessary for you to travel to South America, Central America, and/or the Caribbean, caution should be taken to avoid mosquito bites, especially if you are pregnant. The virus, which is spread by day-biting mosquitoes, can cause fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes.

It also reported that the person infected is a 42-year-old woman with no history of previous travel during the incubation period of the virus.

The CDC reported this week that a dozen cases of Zika infection have been reported in the USA, and they’re believed to have stemmed from travel overseas. These warnings have come in the form of travel restrictions and recommendations for women to delay pregnancy.

Health minister Marcelo Castro said the aim is to develop a prevention for Zika “in record time”.

While experts have not made a definitive connection between the Zika virus and microcephaly, one study linked the proliferation of the virus in Brazil to a rise in miscarriages in the country.

The CDC’s priority was to alert pregnant women to the situation, even though there are a lot of lingering questions, said Dr. Tom Frieden, the agency’s director.

“The mosquito vector for Zika is genus Aedes mosquitos, of which Aedes aegypti as well as Aedes albopictus is found to infest regions of North America, such as Mexico and southern U.S”, Ko, Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine at Yale, told The Speaker.

Official figures show that 96 pregnant women are suspected of having contracted the virus, but so far none have had babies born with microcephaly. One patient fully recovered from the virus, and the others are recovering without any complications, officials say.

Within nine months of the first case being confirmed in the northeast of Brazil in May 2015, most Brazilian states had reported locally-acquired cases.