Three New Yorkers have tested positive for Zika, responsible for serious fetal malformations. The virus has also appeared in Catalonia where 2 cases are confirmed.
After Latin America and the French West Indies, it is the turn of the United States to be affected by the Zika threat. In addition to the first cases in Texas and Hawaii, three New Yorkers have just tested positive for this virus transmitted by the mosquito, which could be responsible for serious malformations of the fetus and an increase in the births of babies with an abnormally small skull in Latin America, health officials said on Friday.
The three people had traveled outside the United States to areas where the tiger mosquito vector of the virus is growing rapidly, New York state health officials said. One of the infected people is completely healed and the others are getting better, they added.
United States advises against 22 countries
But to take no risk, the United States recommended the same day to pregnant women not to travel to 22 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (1), where thousands of cases of microcephaly, possibly linked to the virus , have been identified in infants, and authorities in New York have urged those who travel to these areas to be cautious.
“We call on residents, and especially pregnant women, to educate themselves before embarking on a trip to these countries,” said New York State Health Services Officer Howard Zucker.
Catalonia records its first two cases
Finally, the virus has crossed the borders of the American continent since theCatalan public health agency (ASPCAT) confirmed on Friday the existence of two cases of zika, writes El Pais. Those infected are two women aged 30 and 45 who reside in Catalonia but are from South America, where the epidemic is now becoming endemic. They were returning from a trip to this region.
The Department of Health did not wish to specify in which country these two women had traveled, specifying only that they are currently in “perfect health”, and assuring that there is “no risk to public health” . These two cases were diagnosed at the end of 2015.
As a reminder, there is no curative treatment or vaccine against this disease, only treatment of the symptoms. These manifestations are most often flu-like (fever, headache, body aches) with skin rashes, and appear three to 12 days after the mosquito bite.
(1) Barbados; Bolivia; Ecuador; the Guadeloupe ; Saint-Martin and Guyana; Cape Verde; the Samoa Islands; Brasil ; Colombia ; El Salvador; French Guyana ; Guatemala; Haiti; Honduras; the Martinique ; Mexico ; Panama; Paraguay; Porto Rico ; Suriname; Venezuela
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