Zika Virus Confirmed in MI

She was not pregnant but experienced Zika symptoms upon her return to the state. Currently, doctors have to send blood samples to specialized labs available in only a handful of states or to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, which can take up to weeks to process results.

The health department said it tested several pregnant women who had traveled to countries where the virus is spreading.

The specter of so many cases – all in the continental United States – brings fresh complexity to the medical mystery of Zika. Symptoms typically begin two to seven days after being bitten by an infected mosquito. The mother likely contracted the virus when she was residing in Brazil in May 2015, Hawaii health officials said, and her newborn acquired the infection in the womb.

Meanwhile, CDC is reporting 14 more cases of Zika transmission through sex throughout the United States. County Health Officer Linda Vail says the virus isn’t a threat to people in MI.

Earlier in the day, Chan visited a hospital and clinical research center in Recife, a city at the epicenter of the Zika surge, which Brazilian researchers suspect is linked to an apparent increase in a rare birth defect. People who think they have been exposed to the virus would first have to be examined by their primary care physician who would then contact the Georgia Department of Public Health to arrange for testing.

In two of the suspected cases, the infection has been confirmed in women whose only known risk factor was sexual contact with an ill male partner who had recently travelled to an area where the virus was present, the CDC said.

The Zika virus is primarily spread to humans via Aedes aegypti mosquito bite. The symptoms, however, are generally mild – the most common being fever, rash, joint pain and red, itchy eyes. An infection is usually over in a week but the virus can persist in semen. Upon learning of the three pregnant women who tested positive for the virus, Florida Governor Rick Scott requested 250 additional Zika antibody tests for the state. At this time, there is no evidence that women can transmit Zika virus to their sex partners.

Zika has caused outbreaks in at least 29 countries in the Americas.

Since the start of the outbreak on September 11, 260 cases of the mosquito-borne virus have been confirmed on the Big Island.