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Zika Virus: What to Know

Zika Virus: What to Know

In most people, symptoms of the Zika virus are mild, including fever, headache, rash and possible pink eye. In fact, 80% of those infected never know they have the disease. That is dangerous especially for pregnant women, as this virus has now been shown to pass through amniotic fluid to the growing baby.

The CDC’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, has indicated that a fetus can be infected with the virus. That’s not new for infectious diseases, but it is new for this virus. You just don’t see that with dengue or West Nile or chikungunya viruses.

The virus is most commonly transmitted when an Aedes mosquito bites a person with an active infection and then spreads the virus by biting others. Those people become carriers when they have symptoms.

The CDC reported the first case of locally acquired Zika virus in the United States was not from a mosquito bite but instead was passed via sex.

The case, which Dallas County, Texas, health officials announced, involved a patient who had sex with someone who had recently returned from Venezuela infected with the mosquito-borne virus. The patient had not traveled.

The CDC stressed no danger faced the developing fetus in the Texas case and said it planned to provide guidance on sexual transmission with a focus on the male sexual partners of women who are or who may be pregnant.

 

Zika has arrived in the United States from travelers returning from these infected areas and, in one case, through sexual transmission. The concern, of course, is whether imported cases could result in more locally transmitted cases within the United States.

The Aedes albopictus, or Asian tiger mosquito, which along with Aedes aegypti transmits Zika virus, is present in many parts of the United States.

If mosquitoes in the United States do become carriers, a model created by Toronto researchers found more than 63% of the U.S. population lives in areas where Zika virus might spread during seasonally warm months. A little more than 7% of Americans live in areas where the cold might not kill off the mosquito in the winter, leaving them vulnerable year-round.

With no treatment or vaccine available, the only protection against Zika is to avoid travel to areas with an active infestation. If you do travel to a country where Zika is present, the CDC advises strict adherence to mosquito protection measures: Use an EPA-approved repellent over sunscreen, wear long pants and long-sleeve shirts thick enough to block a mosquito bite, and sleep in air-conditioned, screened rooms, among others.

 

Researchers are hard at work in laboratories around the world trying to create a Zika vaccine. A clinical trial for a Zika virus vaccine could begin this year, according to the CDC it’s important to understand we won’t have a vaccine this year or even in the next few years, although we may be able to have a clinical trial start this calendar year,” he said.

Health officials are implementing traditional mosquito control techniques such as spraying pesticides and emptying standing water receptacles where mosquitoes breed. The CDC encourages homeowners, hotel owners and visitors to countries with Zika outbreaks also to eliminate any standing water they see, such as in outdoor buckets and flowerpots and bring in a professional for eradication and maintenance of Mosquitos.