United, American offering refunds for travel to Zika areas

The CDC, which has not independently confirmed any cases in the continental United States, says almost 20 percent of those infected show any symptoms.

Health officials in the United States are stepping up efforts to study the link between Zika virus infections and birth defects in infants as many pregnant women are concerned about where they should travel and what precautions they should take.

The virus has now spread to at least 25 countries with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warning pregnant women against travelling to the “alert” areas.

Two major US airlines are offering refunds to passengers anxious about the Zika virus outbreak in many tropical countries.

USA doctors are being advised to closely monitor ultrasounds of pregnant women who have travelled to areas where Zika has been transmitted.

L.A. County health officials said the girl had traveled to El Salvador in late November, where she probably contracted the illness. However, it is incurable as there is no vaccine to prevent Zika or medicine to treat the infection.

In the Americas, there is no evidence that the Zika virus can cause death, Paho says, but sporadic cases have been reported of more serious complications in people with preexisting diseases or conditions, causing death. In Latin America: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela.

The virus has affected thousands across the Americas since past year and is expected to spread further across the region, where the population has not been exposed to the disease and so lacks immunity, according to the World Health Organization.

The symptoms of the disease include a rash, headache, and mild fever. “Because it is not mosquito season in Virginia, this individual with Zika virus infection poses no risk to other Virginians”, State Health Commissioner Marissa J. Levine said in the release. The World Health Organisation predicts the virus will continue to spread to much of South and Central America, where mosquito-borne transmission of the related dengue virus has already been documented. The virus is not transmitted person-to-person.

For those who are not pregnant, about one in five will get sick, according to the CDC.

FILE – In this January 18, 2016, file photo, a female Aedes aegypti mosquito acquires a blood meal on t …