Zika virus triggers pregnancy delay calls

ALBANY, N.Y. (WIVB) – Just after the Center for Disease Control issued a warning to Americans traveling overseas on a rare virus spreading across Latin America, New York State health officials announced three cases of the virus have been uncovered in the state.

The virus is particularly concerning for pregnant women because of a possible link between Zika and abnormal brain development in babies called microcephaly, though that link isn’t definitive.

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.

The CDC has cautioned pregnant women not to travel to these areas as Zika has been suspected to lead to birth defects.

Symptoms include a mild fever, joint and muscle pain, headache and conjunctivitis. Since then, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of Brazilian infections and the virus has now been reported in 20 countries throughout the Americas.

Ko says it may be that the Americas are fertile ground for the virus – this hemisphere has the right type of mosquitoes to transmit Zika and people have no immunity to it.

The good news is, while it’s not certain, scientists believe once an individual has been infected with the virus, they are immune and won’t become infected again, according to Higgs.

Researchers have been wary of Zika since French Polynesia noted a jump Guillain-Barre and microcephaly cases in tandem with an outbreak of the dengue-like virus, though the populations were far smaller than in the recent outbreaks.

It is one of 22 territories that the U.S. has warned pregnant women not to visit because of the Zika risk. It breeds in stagnant water, which is more likely to collect during heavy rainfall in everything from abandoned tyres in garbage dumps to residential water tanks recently installed to get residents through a record Brazilian drought.

About 80% of people infected with Zika virus are asymptomatic.

The Salvadorean government chose to make the announcement because 5,397 cases of the Zika virus had been detected in El Salvador in 2015 and the first few days of this year.

Colombia’s health ministry says Zika has already infected 13,500 people across the country and there could be as many as 700,000 cases this year.

Health authorities have added eight tropical destinations to a travel alert about an illness linked with a severe birth defect and spread by mosquitoes. These warnings have come in the form of travel restrictions and recommendations for women to delay pregnancy.