Texas officials confirm 6 travel-related cases of Zika virus

The WHO predicted that by 2017, as many as 4 million people in the Americas could be infected by the virus.

Declaring a “public health emergency of worldwide concern” would establish Zika as a serious global threat and lead to money, resources and scientific expertise being thrown at the problem both in South America and in laboratories around the world.

The mosquitoes become carriers when they bite someone infected the virus, spreading the disease through further bites. The virus is spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is the same type that spreads dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever.

He is calling on the US Agency for International Development to prioritize and increase its involvement in Zika-affected countries overseas in order to better prevent, contain and treat the virus.

The Zika virus was first isolated in 1947 from a monkey in the Zika forest of Uganda. It spread rapidly across Africa, then popped up in various regions of the world in the ensuing decades: Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia in the 1970s, Micronesia in the early 2000s, and most recently in South America, where it has exploded in recent months and scrambled the world health community into action. “Symptoms typically last a couple of days, up to a week”.

Musicians play samba at a street carnival parade during which health workers distributed kits with information about the Zika virus, on Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro.

In the meantime, the CDC has advised pregnant women against travelling to countries where Zika is circulating, and some countries – Brazil, El Salvador, Colombia, Ecuador and Jamaica – have advised women to delay pregnancy, if possible, until the risk of infection has subsided. Researchers are now investigating whether there is any link between Zika virus and Guillain-Barre. “Individuals with further concerns regarding potential sexual transmission of Zika virus should contact their GP for advice”.

The virus is associated with dengue and West Nile virus.

Professor Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “By any means this [Zika] is a public health emergency – with the sheer number of people coming down with a flu-like syndrome”.

The Health Ministry is advising caution and says it’s following the situation in countries with the Zika virus closely.

It has reported around 3,700 cases of microcephaly strongly suspected to be related to Zika.

However, an expert on infectious diseases working in a government hospital, who did not want to reveal his identity, said that the UAE does not have testing kits for the virus as of yet.

Panamanian health officials have registered 42 cases of Zika, all located in Guna Yala, a semi-autonomous indigenous zone along the country’s Caribbean coast.