Concern Grows Over Zika Virus Spreading Into Texas

Other cases have surfaced in Texas, Florida and IL – all are travel related. “These imported cases may result in local spread of the virus in some areas of the continental United States, meaning these imported cases may result in human-to-mosquito-to-human spread of the virus”.

At the moment the only way to fight Zika is to clear standing water where mosquitoes breed.

Outbreaks of the mosquito-borne Zika virus have occurred in areas of Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands and the Americas.

How it’s transmitted. The Zika virus is usually transmitted via a mosquito bite.

The Hawaii state Department of Health said the baby’s mother likely contracted the disease while living in Brazil a year ago and passed it on while her child was in the womb.

Symptoms include fevers, mild headaches, skin rashes, joint pain and conjunctivitis. The virus is spread through mosquito bites. In 80 per cent of cases, the infection goes unnoticed, and it is very rarely fatal. “But since this is a time of year when people travel to warmer climates and countries where Zika virus is found, we are urging residents, especially pregnant women, to take preventive measures when traveling in affected countries and check health travel advisories”. There’s no vaccine to prevent the virus or a medication to treat it, the CDC said.

The new interim guidelines issued by the CDC on Tuesday advise doctors to ask all pregnant women if they have recently traveled to a country where the Zika virus outbreak is ongoing.

One of the mosquitoes that can carry the virus, Aedes aegypti, is not common in Hawaii.

Brazil says the number of babies born with microcephaly or abnormally small heads since October has now reached almost 4,000. CDC has also developed interim Zika virus guidelines for USA health care providers caring for pregnant women.

Apart from Colombia and Brazil, the following countries have also registered cases of this illness: Paraguay, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Mexico, El Salvador, Panama, Guatemala, Honduras as well as other nations in the Caribbean such as Barbados, French Guiana, Guyana, Haiti, Martinique, Saint Martin and Suriname.

Fewer than 150 cases of microcephaly were seen in the country in all of 2014.