Zika virus: Ways you can help

“Those countries have not yet reported the Zika virus, but if they do, then the university will take whatever precautions it must, up to extraction from a country”.

The Zika virus was first discovered in Africa in 1947, but until previous year, when it was found in Brazil, it had never been a threat in the Western Hemisphere.

Brazil has reported as many as 1.5 million cases of Zika infection.

“We have students in Belize and Costa Rica right now”, Kirkpatrick said, naming two Central American countries bordering nations with the virus.

Tropical Southeast Asian countries say they were bracing for the mosquito-borne Zika virus, with Malaysia saying it could “spread quickly” if introduced, but Thailand reporting just a handful of cases a year. Tears swelled as she looked at him, recalling how the symptoms of the Zika virus had struck her during the second month of her pregnancy.

The spread of the virus has impacted conversations about prevention, travel and even health policy.

Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Jamaica and Puerto Rico have meanwhile warned women to avoid getting pregnant.

There was an outbreak in 2007 on Yap Island in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.

In French Polynesia (one of the regions affected), these deformities have caused most of the babies to be stillborn, as the unborn infants simply can not survive.

The WHO says people with the Zika virus have a mild fever, skin rash and conjunctivitis (red eye) with symptoms lasting between two to seven days.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – Four Canadians have been infected with the Zika virus from travelling to affected countries, government health officials said on Friday, one more than Health Minister Jane Philpott reported a day earlier.

WHO will convene an emergency committee meeting to discuss the Zika virus next Monday to ascertain whether the outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of global concern. In Brazil, 200,000 troops are traveling to homes to distribute pamphlets offering advice on eradicating mosquitos, while crews are also fumigating areas that will be used for upcoming carnival celebrations and this year’s Olympics.

While the mosquito that carries the virus, Aedes aegypti, is common in South Florida, Schuchat said several factors in the United States work in our favor: USA urban areas are less densely populated, air-conditioning is more widespread and mosquito control efforts are generally stronger.

Pregnant women who have traveled to these areas should see their OB-GYN and determine if they need to be screened.

Zika is spread through mosquito bites.

The issue of microcephaly has been a huge problem specifically in Brazil, where the number of cases is over twenty times as high as it has been in the past.

Microcephaly is defined as being born with an abnormally small head, established by measuring the circumference of a baby’s head and comparing it with those of similarly aged babies of the same sex-a definition that is relatively loose, CDC Principal Deputy Director Anne Schuchat told reporters today.

Nor it it known how long the risk of transferring Zika to a fetus exists, although the doctors speaking Friday said they wouldn’t expect the risk to last more than three months.