Pregnant Australian woman confirmed positive for Zika virus

Pregnant women or women who are planning to get pregnant are urged to not travel to countries affected by Zika Virus. He said it could be ready for testing in a year and for mass production within two or three years.

Officials say doctors should ask pregnant women about their travel and certain symptoms, and, if warranted, test them for an infection with the Zika virus.

He said the agency is learning more about Zika every day, including the possibility of transmission of the virus from mothers to babies and links to a potentially serious birth defect called microcephaly, although that link has not yet been definitively proven.

There have also been two documented cases of sexual transmission, as the Zika virus lives in semen for weeks.

Other nations where Zika has spread more recently, including Colombia and El Salvador, have been publishing regularly updated statistics indicating how many people have been diagnosed with Zika, including the number of pregnant women. Babies born with this rare condition, known as microcephaly, have abnormally small heads and brain abnormalities.

“It’s only going to be a short while before there’s a concrete link between microcephaly and Zika”.

“It’s extremely heartening to see so many leading global organisations united in this unprecedented commitment to open science, reinforcing the decision by the WHO to declare Zika a Public Health Emergency of worldwide Concern”, he added.

A news release from the Pennsylvania Department of Health on February 5 explained that, citing the CDC, “because there now is no vaccine or treatment for Zika virus, the best way to avoid Zika virus infection is to prevent mosquito bites”.

Brazilian Health Minister Marcelo Castro confirmed the findings at a press conference, while announcing that a new partnership with scientists at the University of Texas could lead to laboratory development of a vaccine within a year. There is now no vaccine for Zika. They are to be used by pregnant women returning from Latin America and the Caribbean, where the virus may be to blame for severe birth defects.

The Zika virus in Central and South America is a strain from French Polynesia.

The U.S. national team has already held one briefing on the virus, and another is set for Thursday.

On Tuesday, the CDC put its emergency operations center on Level 1 status, the highest possible, due to Zika virus.