Thread: Foreign Virus Confirmed in Texas - Untreatable

Outbreaks

CDC confirms Zika virus case in Texas

Published January 12, 2016 FoxNews.com





An Anopheles stephensi mosquito obtains a blood meal from a human host through its pointed proboscis in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters November 23, 2015. REUTERS/Jim Gathany/CDC/Handout via Reuters (Copyright Reuters 2016)

On Monday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Texas confirmed a case of Zika virus, an untreatable mosquito-borne illness.

Health officials in Brazil confirmed in November that the virus, which is common in Latin America and South Asia, is causing some babies in the country to be born with abnormally small heads. Zika can be transmitted to babies in utero.

Fox 26 Houston reported that the Texas case in question is a woman who traveled to Latin America, but officials in the state aren’t concerned about local transmission of the virus and are actively tracking mosquitoes in the area.

"We’re monitoring," Dr. Umair Shah, executive director of Harris County Public Health, told the news station. "We’re always going out to the field, we’re trapping, we’re collecting, and we’re checking. We’re isolating the virus...so there shouldn’t be any alarm right now."

The infected woman, whom the news station didn’t identify by name or age, reportedly went to her doctor for testing when she began exhibiting symptoms of Zika. According to the CDC, common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain or conjunctivitis.
There is no medication to treat Zika, nor is there a vaccine to protect against the virus. Most cases are mild, with symptoms lasting for several days to a week. Severe cases that require hospitalization are less common, and according to the CDC, no deaths have been linked directly to Zika.

The CDC recommends taking precautionary measures— like wearing mosquito repellent and wearing long sleeves and pants— to prevent mosquito bites when traveling to those areas where the virus is common.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/0....html?AID=7236

Quick! Before it breaks away to join Mexico.

we had follow for more then a year the Ebola disease contamination from Africa how it widespread to US Europe once again we had to look after African just like if it was our baby

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The zika virus: a new threat from the tiger mosquito

May 2014
Scientific newssheets

Like its cousins, the dengue and chikungunya viruses, zika appeared several years ago. Two epidemics in the Pacific were recently revealed to the world: the first in Micronesia in 2007, and a second, very significant one with 55,000 patients in Polynesia at the end of 2013. A retrospective study on the dengue and chikungunya epidemic that occurred in Libreville, Gabon in 2007 has just shown that zika was also present then. This is the first time that a zika fever epidemic has been found in Africa, where it originated, and also in an urban setting. These studies also show the responsible factor: the tiger mosquito, already known to be the vector for two other arboviruses in Gabon. Knowing the global spread of this insect, these results present a new potential threat to human health around the world.

A newcomer among arboviruses

In the group of viruses that includes dengue and chikungunya, a newcomer now has people talking about it. Also originating in Africa, zika was isolated in humans in the 1970s. Several years earlier, only a few human cases had been reported. It took until 2007 for the virus to show its epidemic capacity, with 5,000 cases in Micronesia in the Pacific, and then especially, at the end of 2013 in Polynesia, where 55,000 people were affected. In light of these recent events, researchers from IRD and the CIRMF in Gabon restarted work on the concomitant dengue and chikungunya epidemic that occurred in 2007 in the capital, Libreville, and which affected 20,000 people. Showing almost the same symptoms as its two dreaded cousins, did zika pass unnoticed by the researchers?

As many cases of zika fever as of dengue and chikungunya

To remove any doubt, the researchers conducted a second analysis of the blood samples taken seven years earlier from the patients. The result: many cases were due to the zika virus. The latter infected the inhabitants of Libreville with the same frequency as by the dengue or chikungunya viruses. Therefore, the capital actually experienced a concomitant epidemic of dengue, chikungunya, and zika in 2007. Additionally, analysis of the phylogenetic tree of the zika viruses detected in Libreville confirms that it was a strain belonging to the old African line. In other words, the latter was found to be more virulent than thought.

An emerging threat to human health

The researchers also re-analysed the mosquitoes captured in 2007. These studies attested to the first known presence of zika in Aedes albopictus , better known as the tiger mosquito. Thus, this insect, known to be the vector of dengue and chikungunya, also carries the zika virus. It is the predominant species in Libreville, where it represents more than 55% of the mosquitoes collected. The tiger mosquito prospers in small bodies of standing water such as in broken bottles, tins, flowerpots, abandoned used tires, etc.

Originally from Asia, the tiger mosquito was introduced to Africa in 1991 and detected in Gabon in 2007, where its arrival undoubtedly contributed to the emergence of dengue, chikungunya, and as shown by this new study, zika. The rapid geographic expansion of this invasive species in Africa, Europe, and America allows for a risk of propagation of zika fever around the world, including in the south of France.

https://en.ird.fr/the-media-centre/s...tiger-mosquito

1/16/16

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