Zika infection cases in USA rise to 10

Dallas County officials said a patient there was infected following sexual contact with someone who had returned to the United States after contracting it in Venezuela.

The World Health Organization voiced concern on Wednesday over the reported sexual transmission of the Zika virus in Texas amid worries that such infections could make efforts to combat the virus linked to severe birth defects in Brazil even tougher.

Peru has the conditions for this disease to spread. “Zika is not new – it has been around since the 1950s – but this strain is showing that it can be transmitted from the mother to the developing fetus”, he said.

Scientists have studied Zika far less than other mosquito-borne diseases, so for guidance they often look at dengue fever or chikungunya, which are transmitted by the same species of mosquito. There is no specific medication available to treat Zika virus and, as Breitbart News reported, there is no vaccine.

(Dallas health officials have not revealed weather the infected traveler showed symptoms of the virus.) In the case of sexually transmitted viruses such as HPV and herpes, for example, the illnesses can be spread by people who are asymptomatic-but we just don’t know enough about Zika’s human-to-human transmission yet to understand how it spreads.

Cambodian health officials visited three sites in Phnom Penh on Thursday in order to catch mosquitoes and larvae for Zika virus tests.

With health authorities warning the disease could infect up to 4 million people in the Americas, ministers from 14 countries held talks in Uruguay to plot their response to the growing crisis, with fears the virus could spread worldwide.

A Zika vaccine could be ready for clinical trial by later this year, but Fauci warned that it will likely take years before the vaccine is ready for market. “Our Department of Health will continue to be in constant communication with all county health offices, hospitals and the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)”.

China has reported microcephaly cases before, but they were caused by other factors such as other viruses or exposure to radiation, he said.

The issue of most concern, experts said, is the possible link between Zika infection and microcephaly, a condition in newborns marked by abnormally small heads and brains that have not developed properly. With the onset of spring and summer, the risk that Zika virus will spread increases, she added. “Women should consult a medical provider before traveling to an affected area if they are pregnant or plan to become pregnant”. While Zika isn’t a virus that is known for sticking around in the body, it’s unclear if it could. “Symptoms typically last a couple of days, up to a week”. As global temperatures rise and there are changes in precipitation patterns, there are more environments where mosquitos that carry the virus to survive.

“About four of five people who get infected with Zika never have symptoms at all”, she said.