Hawaii baby born with defect linked to Zika virus

Health officials said there is no risk to the public because all the cases so far have been in returning travelers who were likely infected by mosquitos overseas rather than by mosquitos in the USA mainland.

Dominican Health Minister Altagracia Guzman Marcelino on Wednesday asked women to postpone getting pregnant this year due to the threat posed by the Zika virus, which has been linked to birth defects. The CDC has also advised any pregnant women who have traveled to countries with the Zika virus to get tested for the virus if they are have two or more symptoms of the virus.

Zika causes only a mild illness in most people.

The areas covered in the travel alert include places like Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Suriname, and Venezuela.

Although Zika virus is not a reportable disease in the United States, the agency did encourage health care providers to report suspected cases to their local or state health departments, which should report laboratory-confirmed cases to the CDC’s ArboNET surveillance system. It has been found in some pockets of the islands and is blamed for an ongoing outbreak on the Big Island of the dengue virus, which is spread the same way as Zika.

In the last month, two pregnant women in IL and three people in Florida have been confirmed to have the virus.

Zika virus was recently reported to have affected female inmates in a Colombia prison. None of the residents are pregnant women.

In the Brazil cases, most of the mothers apparently were infected during the first trimester, but there is some evidence the birth defect can occur later in pregnancy, CDC officials have said.

Babies with microcephaly have smaller than normal heads and their brains do not develop properly. However, Brazil is now reporting a high number of Zika infections, with the bug affecting newborn babies. Out of an abundance of caution, Shah urged pregnant women traveling to the Caribbean, Central America, or South America to cover up, wear insect repellent, and stay in air conditioned locations.

Aedes aegypti is the mosquito that carries the dengue and Zika viruses, among others.

There is now no vaccine or preventative medicine for the Zika virus.

Release of GM bugs in the U.S.is a possibility too, and interest in the idea might accelerate if Zika or unexplained cases of microcephaly spring up in Florida.