Travelers Warned of Zika Virus
January 19, 2016
An outbreak of a virus has led health officials at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to issue a travel alert for people, especially pregnant women or women of child-bearing years who might get pregnant, to avoid travel to Puerto Rico and 13 countries in Latin America. The CDC recommended that pregnant women not travel to Puerto Rico and Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, and Venezuela out of fear of birth defects associated with infection by mosquito-borne Zika virus. An outbreak of the Zika virus is linked to a rash of devastating birth defects in Brazil.
Since November 2015, Brazilian health authorities have observed a dramatic increase in babies born with microcephaly, a congenital condition (a problem caused by faulty development, infection, or injury before birth). With this condition, a child is born with a smaller-than-normal sized head, often with severely impaired brain development. In Brazil, more than 3,500 births of babies with microcephaly were reported in 2015, with many deaths. This is a significant increase compared to the 147 cases of microcephaly recorded in Brazil in all of 2014. Brazilian officials believe that the frightening increase in this serious rare condition is related to a recent outbreak of Zika virus in the country. On January 15, the CDC reported that an infant born with microcephaly and her mother had both tested positive for a prior Zika infection. The mother had been in Brazil during her pregnancy. It was the first U.S. case of a birth defect linked to the virus.
Zika virus is spread to people through the bite of a mosquito, Aedes aegypti, common throughout tropical regions of the world. This mosquito is responsible for transmitting other serious diseases, including yellow fever, dengue, and chikungunya. Symptoms of Zika virus disease include fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (eye inflammation). For adults and children already born, the illness is usually mild, with symptoms lasting from several days to a week. Severe Zika virus infections, requiring hospitalization or causing death, are uncommon.
In the past, outbreaks of Zika virus infection have occurred in areas of Africa, where the virus is endemic (naturally occurring), Southeast Asia, and some Pacific Islands. However, none of these outbreaks has ever been associated with birth defects. In early 2015, the Zika virus was first found in an outbreak of illness in Brazil. The virus was later found in patients in several other countries in South America. By November, Brazilian health officials were alarmed by the dramatic increase in births of babies with microcephaly with no apparent cause. Several of the mother and babies tested positive for exposure to the Zika virus, indicating a possible link. Doctors do not yet understand how the Zika virus may cause microcephaly and why this serious condition has not been associated with the virus in previous outbreaks in other countries.
There is currently no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat Zika. The CDC says that pregnant women should consider postponing travel to these countries. Any pregnant women who must travel to one of these areas should talk to their healthcare provider first and strictly follow steps to avoid mosquito bites. People can limit the risk of Zika infection through basic mosquito-control measures. For example, people in affected areas should limit skin exposure by wearing long sleeves and pants, and wear mosquito repellant as necessary during the day, when the mosquitoes that transmit Zika virus are known to bite.
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