AI
Monday, August 08, 2016 8:07:42 AM
Zika is in Asia, India, Eygpt, Indonesia, Brazil , South America, all over the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean Islands, etc
and just getting started ....
Zika’s Expanding Range
The Zika virus was confirmed in Brazil in May 2015 and has spread northward to other countries in the Americas, including Mexico. The virus is carried by mosquitoes, in particular Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito.
TWO INVASIVE SPECIES Zika is readily spread by the yellow fever mosquito, which is present in the United States but concentrated in the South. The Asian tiger mosquito has a broader range, including New York and Chicago, but it’s not known how well it transmits Zika.
“This is going to decimate Caribbean tourism,” he added. “But we can’t wait to act until nine months from now, when congenital defects turn up in the labor and delivery suites.”
Press officers at three cruise lines — Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Princess — said this week that they had never heard of Zika virus and referred a reporter to their trade group, the Cruise Lines International Association.
An association spokeswoman, Elinore Boeke, said travelers should check with public health officials about destinations they planned to visit and cited the C.D.C.’s current travel advisories, which suggest only that all visitors avoid mosquito bites by using repellent and long clothes.
Cruise ships publish daily fliers on health and safety and instruct passengers on how to avoid bites, Ms. Boeke added.
Reports of surging rates of microcephaly have already unnerved some travelers. On Tuesday, Ashley D’Amato Staller, 33, a lawyer in Haddonfield, N.J., who is pregnant with her fourth child, backed out of a planned February trip to Puerto Rico with 17 members of her extended family after reading articles about Zika arriving there.
“Part of me feels you have to live your life, so let’s go,” she said. “I could skip going and still get hit by a car or catch West Nile, or someone could sneeze on me. On the other hand, this is my baby, and nothing’s more important.”
Officials in Brazil said Tuesday that they were investigating more than 3,500 cases of microcephaly in newborns. Until last year, the country normally had about 150 cases of microcephaly each year.
There is no vaccine for Zika, but the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has been working on one for the past month, said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the institute’s director.
Dr. Stanley Plotkin, a leading vaccine inventor, said a Zika vaccine “should not be extremely difficult to make” because the disease is closely related to yellow fever and Japanese encephalitis, for which there are effective vaccines.
Epidemiologists estimate that more than 1.5 million Brazilians have been infected. The alarm about microcephaly was raised in October, when doctors in the northern state of Pernambuco noticed unusual numbers of small-headed babies.
Although Brazil has strongly advised all pregnant women to avoid mosquito bites, a leading health official went further two weeks ago, suggesting that women in the hard-hit northeast region postpone having children.
“If she can wait, then she should,” said Cláudio Maierovitch, the ministry’s chief of infectious disease surveillance.
On Tuesday, the health minister of the Dominican Republic reportedly advised women there not to have children. Later, another ministry official clarified that statement: If local transmission of Zika is detected in the country, he said, the ministry would give that advice.
Sandra E. Garcia contributed reporting.
A version of this article appears in print on January 14, 2016, on page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: Virus in South America May Bring C.D.C. Alert. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
and just getting started ....
Zika’s Expanding Range
The Zika virus was confirmed in Brazil in May 2015 and has spread northward to other countries in the Americas, including Mexico. The virus is carried by mosquitoes, in particular Aedes aegypti, the yellow fever mosquito.
TWO INVASIVE SPECIES Zika is readily spread by the yellow fever mosquito, which is present in the United States but concentrated in the South. The Asian tiger mosquito has a broader range, including New York and Chicago, but it’s not known how well it transmits Zika.
“This is going to decimate Caribbean tourism,” he added. “But we can’t wait to act until nine months from now, when congenital defects turn up in the labor and delivery suites.”
Press officers at three cruise lines — Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Princess — said this week that they had never heard of Zika virus and referred a reporter to their trade group, the Cruise Lines International Association.
An association spokeswoman, Elinore Boeke, said travelers should check with public health officials about destinations they planned to visit and cited the C.D.C.’s current travel advisories, which suggest only that all visitors avoid mosquito bites by using repellent and long clothes.
Cruise ships publish daily fliers on health and safety and instruct passengers on how to avoid bites, Ms. Boeke added.
Reports of surging rates of microcephaly have already unnerved some travelers. On Tuesday, Ashley D’Amato Staller, 33, a lawyer in Haddonfield, N.J., who is pregnant with her fourth child, backed out of a planned February trip to Puerto Rico with 17 members of her extended family after reading articles about Zika arriving there.
“Part of me feels you have to live your life, so let’s go,” she said. “I could skip going and still get hit by a car or catch West Nile, or someone could sneeze on me. On the other hand, this is my baby, and nothing’s more important.”
Officials in Brazil said Tuesday that they were investigating more than 3,500 cases of microcephaly in newborns. Until last year, the country normally had about 150 cases of microcephaly each year.
There is no vaccine for Zika, but the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has been working on one for the past month, said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the institute’s director.
Dr. Stanley Plotkin, a leading vaccine inventor, said a Zika vaccine “should not be extremely difficult to make” because the disease is closely related to yellow fever and Japanese encephalitis, for which there are effective vaccines.
Epidemiologists estimate that more than 1.5 million Brazilians have been infected. The alarm about microcephaly was raised in October, when doctors in the northern state of Pernambuco noticed unusual numbers of small-headed babies.
Although Brazil has strongly advised all pregnant women to avoid mosquito bites, a leading health official went further two weeks ago, suggesting that women in the hard-hit northeast region postpone having children.
“If she can wait, then she should,” said Cláudio Maierovitch, the ministry’s chief of infectious disease surveillance.
On Tuesday, the health minister of the Dominican Republic reportedly advised women there not to have children. Later, another ministry official clarified that statement: If local transmission of Zika is detected in the country, he said, the ministry would give that advice.
Sandra E. Garcia contributed reporting.
A version of this article appears in print on January 14, 2016, on page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: Virus in South America May Bring C.D.C. Alert. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
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