Lehigh: Student tested positive for Zika, but has recovered

Health officials are investigating whether there is a link between Zika infections in pregnant women and cases of microcephaly, a rare condition in which infants are born with abnormally small heads.

More than four dozen Zika cases have been confirmed in 14 states and the District of Columbia – six involving pregnant women – with at least another 21 cases in USA territories, the CDC said last Friday.

President Obama on Monday announced that he was seeking the emergency funding from Congress to combat the Zika virus through mosquito control programs, vaccine development, public education programs and improving health care for low-income pregnant women.

Transmission occurs when those mosquitoes bite a person infected with the Zika virus and then transmit the virus to another person. It usually results in mild illness, but the virus poses a greater danger to pregnant women because of the possible link to birth defects.

The study centered on an expectant mother who was infected with the Zika virus and aborted the fetus after an ultrasound showed signs of severe fetal abnormalities. Several South American countries have identified cases of the syndrome.

Brazil is launching a herculean effort to fumigate Rio for mosquitoes, and most of the Olympics events will be held in that one city, but it has a native population of 12.9 million sharing a varied geography that includes rain forest and beaches. The Aedes aegypti is a vector for transmitting the Zika virus. “If the Olympics were today, I would not go”, she said Wednesday in Frisco, Texas. The absence of those mosquitoes in California could limit the spread of the disease here, but local medical providers have been told to advise patients with suspected Zika virus infection to avoid being bitten by any mosquitoes.

Southwest China’s border province of Yunnan is on high alert for Zika, providing 24-hour laboratory tests for the virus.

Health experts have recommended overseas travelers should read advice about their destination country before travelling. Eskild Petersen, editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, said “Controlling Zika at present is a problem of mosquito control and once the authorities get that working, the risk will be reduced”. The CDC recently transferred 300 members of its staff who were working on Dengue fever to Puerto Rico to battle Zika, Frieden said.

Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chairman of the subcommittee on global health, said awareness about Zika needed to be raised, but noted a major difference: Ebola was a deadly disease easily spread by human-to-human contact.

“This isn’t just Brazil’s concern; it’s the world’s concern”, he said.