CT Department of Public Health Provides Update on Zika Virus

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been no reported mosquito-transmitted cases of Zika in the continental United States.

A pregnant woman from Los Angeles County has been infected with the Zika virus after traveling outside the area, public health officials confirmed late Friday.

The organization provided guidelines that cautioned pregnant women to stay away from the Rio de Janeiro Games, as well as warning those with a male partner attending the event to “use condoms the right way, every time, or do not have sex during your pregnancy” because of the risk for sexual transmission of Zika. These numbers might decrease if pregnant women follow CDC recommendations and postpone travel to areas with ongoing local Zika virus transmission.

Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the CDC, said that while a direct connection between Zika and microcephaly is not yet proven, “the evidence is getting stronger and stronger” that there is one. All of them are US citizens who reportedly contracted the disease while in one of the central or south American countries or territories now experiencing Zika outbreaks, then traveled to the United States. The CDC also said that two have given birth to healthy babies, two continue their pregnancies without known complications and one has given birth to a baby with a brain defect.

The reproduction of the story/photograph in any form will be liable for legal action. The virus causes mild illness or no symptoms in most people.

It is the second confirmed case of Zika virus in the county, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

The varied outcomes of nine pregnant USA women the agency has identified with Zika, as well as the hundreds of US women that have sought out tests for the virus, underscore the angst and uncertainty that the diseases is causing as it spread through much of the Americas, particularly when it comes to worries over severe birth defects associated with illness.

A mother cares for her baby who has microcephaly. He said researchers have undertaken studies to answer some of those questions in Brazil, where the number of microcephaly cases is highest.

Those destinations are among the 30 places now on the CDC’s travel alert.

Like West Nile virus, Zika is primarily transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito.

U.S. soccer player Hope Solo said Thursday she was unlikely to join her teammates for the Rio Olympic Games without more information about the virus. The first was an adolescent who had travelled to El Salvador, and was diagnosed in November.