Doctors Asked To Watch For Zika Virus

The Illinois Department of Public Health said Tuesday doctors are monitoring the women’s health and their pregnancies.

The Zika virus is spread by the Aedes mosquito – the same one that carries other diseases that infect humans, including yellow fever, West Nile, chikungunya and dengue.

“What is concerning and what is new to all of us in my field is that it’s rampant in the Caribbean and South America, Central America”, said Dr. Marshall St. Amant, a specialist on birth defects at Woman’s Hospital.

While lacking complete clinical evidence, doctors and researchers increasingly suspect Zika is connected to cases of microcephaly – a neurological disorder in which infants are born with smaller craniums and brains.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued a travel alert for people traveling to regions and countries where Zika virus transmission is ongoing.

Ramsay reiterated the message for pregnant women and women who may become pregnant during this period to be especially vigilant as the feotus can be adversely affected. These women should also be offered a test of their amniotic fluid called amniocentesis to confirm the presence of Zika virus.

“There’s a lot we don’t know”, including how much Zika is in the different areas, or how likely it is that Zika infection in a pregnant woman will lead to the birth defect, he added.

Researchers in Brazil are working on a vaccine to prevent Zika but there is no treatment available. In reporting the laboratory confirmation from the CDC, the Hawaii health department said the child’s mother probably had a Zika infection while living in Brazil during the spring.

The CDC is not necessarily concerned with the effect of Zika virus disease on pregnant women like Meakins because its symptoms are relatively mild and could last about a week. It is native to tropical Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.

Sagging demand from China has undercut Latin America’s export-dependent economies at the same time their currencies have been battered by the rising values of dollars and euros. In addition, a person in Puerto Rico who had not traveled was diagnosed with the illness. As reports of mosquitoes with West Nile virus are increasing across the country and several people have been confirmed to be infected by the potentially risky disease, the Contra Costa County Mosquito and Vector Control District is testing mosquito larvae found in standing water throughout the county and is using mosquito fish and BVA Larvacide oils to eradicate the pest.