First case of Zika virus confirmed in Maryland

Late Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified the Ohio Department of Health of the second case of Zika virus in a returning traveler from Haiti, a 21-year-old Stark County man. Wadsworth is one of only three state laboratories in the country equipped to perform the screening and confirmatory tests of Zika antibodies and other related viruses.

Hughes said he had been contacted by several Australia athletes and officials in the past several days over the Zika virus, but none had indicated they would not travel to Brazil in August. The national health body said public health experts have evaluated this case and believed that the risk of spreading of the virus due to this imported case is “extremely” low due to low temperature. The females affected all experienced mild symptoms.

KRON 4 notes that the symptoms of Zika “include fever, rash, joint pain, and red, itchy eyes”.

Health officials said the patient has fully recovered since the case was reported in the past week.

Five New York City residents did get infected with Zika while traveling outside the country.

Earlier this week a pregnant woman became the third confirmed case in Queensland in 2016.

Officials with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene have not said whether it’s a man or a woman, but since the outbreak started, the impact of Zika has focused primarily on pregnant women and their babies. It was probably introduced when a traveler came from French Polynesia to South America with the illness and was bitten by a mosquito. However, it does pose a huge risk to pregnant women – causing birth defects in babies.

Pregnant women are strongly encouraged to heed travel advisories, officials said, as the virus has been linked to a condition that may have caused brain damage and small heads in newborns in Brazil.

“There is a possibility of adverse affects on the unborn child in this case, but we don’t know what that possibility looks like”, he said.