The CDC has issued a travel warning to avoid 14 countries and territories in the Caribbean and Latin America due to the Zika virus’s advance. Photo (c) El Nuevo Herald Venezuela 2016
The Centers for Disease Control and Disease Prevention (CDC) have issued a warning to travelers - particularly pregnant women - to avoid 14 countries and territories in the Caribbean and Latin America due to the advance of the Zika virus.
Reports have circulated regarding the disease’s serious consequences on its victims and the potential harm it may present to fetuses. An effective cure has yet to be implemented.
Zika - a virus transmitted by the mosquito Aedes aegypti virus, typically causes fever, rash, pain and conjunctivitis, symptoms that usually lasts a week, but in the case of pregnant women may spread to the fetus and cause birth defects and even death.
Zika - a virus transmitted by the mosquito Aedes aegypti virus, typically causes fever, rash, pain and conjunctivitis. Photo (c) Slide Share 2015
“The virus is spreading rapidly across the Americas,” says Lyle Petersen, Director of the division of infectious diseases vectors Centers for Disease Control and Prevention US (CDC), “Hence the need to warn people as soon as possible.”
The warning extends specifically to Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, where the majority of reports have been filed.
The warning extends specifically to Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, where the majority of reports have been filed. Photo (c) Imparcial Oaxaca 2016
In Brazil, more than 3,500 cases of microcephaly were recorded between October 2015 and this January 2016.
The analysis of four of these cases indicated that infants were infected with zika while in the womb and that the virus reached the brain. Two of them ended in spontaneous abortions and the other died shortly after birth.
Petersen explains that, under the circumstances, and until there is a better understanding of the level of spread of the virus, the CDC recommends special Latin America travel precautions for pregnant women or women who are on track to have a baby.
