First case of Zika virus in Ontario confirmed

Zika is now in Africa, Asia and some Pacific islands and in the Western Hemisphere it appeared last May in Brazil where there 4 thousand Microcephaly cases reported. Still, there no promising vaccine in the works for Zika now.

In a travel notice the Ministry of Foreign Affairs raised the travel alert for Tonga from gray, the lowest alert level, to yellow, given that the country has declared the mosquito-borne Zika virus an epidemic.

In the case of microcephaly, valuable information is likely to emerge from some 5,000 pregnant women in Colombia who are infected with the Zika virus, Bruce Aylward, the WHO’s executive director of outbreaks and health emergencies, told VOA.

“The patient is not pregnant”, said Joanne Woodward Fraser, from Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

Pregnant women and those trying to conceive should talk to their healthcare provider to assess whether to postpone travel to areas where the Zika virus is circulating in the Americas.

The United Nations’ health agency said it could take a further four to six months for it to be able to say with certainty whether the Zika virus is associated with the birth defect, which can cause severe developmental problems.

Brazil, which has confirmed more than 500 cases of microcephaly, is scrambling to contain the Zika virus, fearing that the outbreak could dampen attendance at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in August.

The studies seek to confirm that the mosquito-borne virus is responsible for an unprecedented surge in Brazil of babies born with abnormally small heads, a condition called microcephaly, and that it can cause Guillain-Barré syndrome, a temporary paralysis in adults.

Aside from mosquitoes, Zika can be spread through sexual contact in some cases, the CDC notes.

Ontarians visiting affected areas should protect themselves against Zika virus by taking individual protective measures to prevent mosquito bites, including using insect repellent, protective clothing, mosquito nets, screened doors and windows.

For someone to get the virus, they need someone who has the virus and a mosquito to bite that person, and the same mosquito should bite another person, and in SA our community of mosquitoes does not spread the virus. Most people exposed to Zika virus won’t develop any symptoms at all. Symptoms of the virus include fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes.