Zika virus cases spread in Latin America, Caribbean

The United States’ first case of the mysterious Zika virus has been confirmed by Hawaiian officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that state’s health department said Friday.

The CDC’s travel advice suggests that women who might become pregnant and are planning travel to Zika-affected areas should discuss the issue with their doctors. “We didn’t feel we could wait”. The latest test results from Brazil have shown “increasingly strong evidence” of a link between the virus and fetal brain damage, CDC said.

The U.S. has warned pregnant women from travelling to a number of countries across Latin America and the Caribbean after new cases of the Zika virus were found.

In the past, outbreaks of Zika virus infection have occurred in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. There is no vaccine or specific drug to treat this virus.

The CDC has said the virus is likely to come to the United States.

Microcephaly is a neurological disorder that can cause babies to be born with abnormally small heads, which leads to severe developmental issues and sometimes death.

“In parallel to the recent experience with chikungunya, Zika virus has the potential to rapidly spread across Latin America and the Caribbean”, stated a recent article in the Lancet. People traveling to any of the 14 areas covered under the warning should make sure windows in their lodgings have screens and strictly follow steps to prevent mosquito bites during the trip, including wearing long sleeves, long trousers and applying insect repellents containing substances like DEET.

Puerto Rico reported its first case of Zika in December.

Brazil’s health ministry said 3,530 babies have been born with microcephaly in the country since October.

The uptick in microcephaly started appearing a few months after the virus was identified, which is why Brazilian health officials believe there may be a bad link between Zika and the birth defect. It generally causes mild infections, but there’s mounting evidence linking it to a birth defect in Brazil.

Because Zika’s “turf” is spreading – now showing up in Puerto Rico and Haiti – and because the virus was found in two Brazilian newborns who died, as well as in the placentas of two women who miscarried.

Zika can cause fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis, with symptoms usually lasting less than a week.

Health Minister Marcelo Castro said Friday that the goal is for the Sao Paulo-based Butantan Institute to develop “in record time” a vaccine for Zika, which is spread through mosquito bites.

Earlier this week Harris County, Texas, confirmed that a middle-aged female who traveled to El Salvador in November had subsequently developed symptoms of Zika and that the disease had been confirmed by laboratory testing.

State health officials today said they have asked Connecticut health care providers to report suspected cases of Zika virus infection to the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) and to the patient’s local health department. A much larger outbreak was reported in French Polynesia in 2013 and 2014, affecting 30,000 people. But all were people who were infected during travel outside the country.