Zika virus started appearing in United States with 5 new cases

He advised women in the country not to get pregnant for the rest of the outbreak – which he said could last until July.

The virus first appeared in the Americas previous year and has recently been linked to miscarriages and birth defects prompting the alert from the Canadian government.

Zika transmission occurs when the Aedes aegypti mosquito takes a blood meal from a person who is infected and passes the virus along while feeding on another person.

The symptoms. Symptoms include fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes (conjunctivitis). There’s no specific treatment; infected people aren’t contagious.

“The Brazilian Health Ministry is carrying out further investigations on the actual cause for the increase in microcephaly cases in childbirths including the possibility there might be a link to Zika virus infection”, he said in a statement here Wednesday. And only one in five of those people that are infected with it actually experience symptoms.

There are concerns the Zika virus could spread in the US since the Aedes mosquito, which is largely to blame for the disease’s outbreak in Latin America, can also be found in southern states. The connection to Zika is still being investigated, and health officials note there are many causes of the condition, including genetics, and exposure during pregnancy to alcohol and certain germs and toxic chemicals.

It is believed that the virus was brought to Brazil by African and Asian tourists during the 2014 World Cup as Zika is not endemic to South America. “These imported cases may result in local spread of the virus in some areas of the continental United States, meaning these imported cases may result in human-to-mosquito-to-human spread of the virus”.

The CDC says pregnant women should consider postponing trips to these destinations because the virus has been linked with microcephaly. Health Department officials have asked Florida residents to “protect themselves from all mosquito-borne illnesses by draining standing water; covering their skin with repellent and clothing; covering windows with screens and other basic precautions”, according to the Examiner.

The US authorities say pregant women should avoid going to Puerto Rico, Martinique, Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and Mexico.