Health official: Zika blood tests pending for several patients in Pennsylvania

A health worker shows a flyer to explain to people how to prevent mosquito-borne dengue, chikungunya and Zika viruses in San Salvador, El Salvador. The government of Latin American countries have been extremely alarmed that they have urged women to avoid getting pregnant until 2017. Before the epidemic, Brazil recorded only about 150 cases of microcephaly a year. A vaccine may not be found for some time.

Although the disease is mainly transmitted through mosquitoes, PHE said sexual transmission had been recorded in a “limited number of cases”.

The ministry made a decision to get Zika virus testing kits within a week, and is set to prepare a travel advisory for those travelling to infected countries.

There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, which is like dengue and causes mild fever, rash and red eyes.

The Aedes albopictus, whose spread as far north as OH and New Jersey makes it seem hardier, also is thought capable of carrying the virus but hasn’t been definitively linked to it yet.

The virus has been linked to a devastating birth defect called microcephaly in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and brains that have not developed properly.

The figures confirm that the province of Norte de Santander, bordering on Venezuela, continues to have the most cases of pregnant women infected with Zika, or 37.2 percent of the total.

However, with three confirmed cases of people bringing the virus spread through mosquitos from Central and South America to the Houston area, there is concern.

Smit says even if the virus spreads here, there are ways to reduce contact with mosquitoes when they’re most active: by using repellant and staying indoors with the air conditioning on.

Health officials in the US state of Virginia said Tuesday a man there tested positive for the virus, but that there was no risk of it spreading to others because it is not mosquito season there.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), in collaboration with the World Health Organization, has this week sent an update on the Zika virus infection to public health ministries and health professionals in the Pacific Islands region.