Zika travel warnings spread to Samoa

The simplest answer: Don’t travel to places where mosquitoes carry and spread it. That list of places is growing, though – the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added eight destinations, a lot of them in the Americas, to the list Friday, as more information emerges about the dangers of the virus, which scientists say could be linked to microcephaly, a birth defect, and potentially paralysis, too.

Babies across the region, and at least one in the United States, have been born with abnormally smaller heads – a condition doctors call microcephaly, which can cause brain damage.

Dr Hilary Kirkbride, travel and migrant health expert at PHE said: “The symptoms of Zika are similar to other mosquito-borne infections such as dengue, chikungunya and malaria so laboratory testing is essential for the correct diagnosis”.

The link between microcephaly and Zika has not been confirmed but a small number of babies who died had the virus in their brain and no other explanation for the surge in microcephaly has been suggested.

In Colombia, more than 13,500 cases have been reported, and the country’s health minister has advised women there to delay pregnancy. And while the mechanics of how the virus may affect infants remain murky, authorities in Brazil, Colombia and El Salvador are urging women to avoid the risk by postponing pregnancies.

There is no cure for ZIKV.

ALBANY, N.Y. – Three New Yorkers who had recently traveled outside the country, including one from Upstate, have tested positive for the mosquito-born Zika virus, state health officials said Friday.

Barbados, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guadeloupe, Saint Martin, Guyana, Cape Verde and Samoa are now included in the level two travel alert.

Ruiz said there have been 12 cases of people with Guillain-Barre who also experienced Zika-like symptoms.

There are no vaccines to protect against Zika virus, but the CDC said health officials are working to develop them. Bell stressed that there are still many unknowns about the Zika virus.

Aedes aegypti mosquito, a transmitter of Zika virus.

Three cases of the Zika virus have been confirmed in Florida.

“Until we have a better handle on the spread of the virus northward, and a better handle on the disease itself, I don’t think there’s cause for widespread panic”.

In this December 22, 2015 photo, a baby named Luiza has her head measured by a neurologist in Caruaru, Brazil.

According to DOH, the person infected, is a 42-year-old woman with no history of previous travel during the incubation period of the virus.

“This virus they first isolated in Uganda and it was relatively isolated to that hemisphere”. Puerto Rico and Haiti have already reported Zika cases.