US expands travel warning over Zika virus

The CDC updated its travel alert on Friday to 22 countries and regions, adding Barbados, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin, Guyana, Cape Verde, and Samoa.

CDC has already developed guidelines for American health providers regarding appropriate care for pregnant women in the face of Zika virus outbreak.

Microcephaly is a birth defect in which a baby is born with a smaller head and a smaller brain, which may not develop properly.

The surge of cases since the virus was first detected past year in Brazil led the ministry to link it to the fetal deformations and warn pregnant women to use insect repellent to avoid mosquito bites. In those that do, the worst of it involves fever, rash, joint pain, and red eyes – which usually lasts no more than a week. Due to the potential link between the Zika virus and microcephaly, the ACOG is recommending medical professionals to take more detailed patient histories for their female patients who are pregnant or have plans to get pregnant.

No one can yet say why Zika hasn’t been associated with birth defects before, but the virus didn’t start spreading widely until 2007.

Though now there are no vaccines to protect against Zika virus, the National Institutes of Health has made this an initiative. Authorities have also advised pregnant women to not travel to countries where the virus is spreading. Their spinal fluid is being analyzed for Zika and other infections, but the results are not back yet, the Brazilian team reported in a CDC bulletin.

Since last May, the virus carried by mosquitoes has centralized in South America and Central America.

In both French Polynesia in 2013 and in Brazil previous year, both Zika and dengue were circulating at the same time and officials noticed an increase in cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a neurological disorder that can follow viral infections. One person has fully recovered, and the two others are recovering without complications, according to a statement the State Health Department issued Friday.

The baby was born to a woman who had been living in Brazil early in her pregnancy.

The virus grows in human blood and any other mosquito can then pick it up while biting and transmit it further.

The warning came on Monday after epidemiological data showed that the number of countries showing confirmed cases had doubled between December 1, 2015 and January 17, 2016; a difference of only eight weeks.