Thread: Zika virus found in Hawaiian baby, officials say

Zika virus found in Hawaiian baby, officials say

By Susan Levine January 16 at 6:56 PM

Hawaii health officials say a baby recently born with microcephaly at an Oahu hospital was infected with the Zika virus in utero.

In reporting the laboratory finding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state health department said the child’s mother probably had a Zika infection while living in Brazil last spring. That country is experiencing an outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus and, since October, has had more than 3,500 children born with microcephaly.

The rare condition, marked by an abnormally small head, is associated with incomplete brain development.

[Brazilians panic as mosquito-borne virus is linked to brain damage in thousands of babies]

Late Friday, CDC advised pregnant women not to travel to Brazil or more than a dozen other countries and territories where local transmission of Zika has occurred. The latest test results from Brazil have shown “increasingly strong evidence” of a link between the virus and fetal brain damage, CDC said. There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika.

Brazil mobilizes against outbreak of mosquito-borne virus

View Photos
South America’s biggest country has seen a rise in cases of a disease triggered by the little-known Zika virus being linked to a spike in birth defects.


“We are saddened by the events that have affected this mother and her newborn,” Hawaii State Epidemiologist Sarah Park said in a statement. The statement noted that neither the mother nor baby are infectious, “and there was never a risk of transmission in Hawaii.”



https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...18d_story.html

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New Bird Flu Virus Strain Shuts Down Indiana Turkey Farm

No new bird flu cases at US turkey farms

US authorities say no more Indiana turkey farms have tested positive for bird flu, which is a sign the outbreak is being brought under control.

No more turkey farms in a US county have tested positive for bird flu since an outbreak at 10 farms, where nearly 250,000 turkeys will be killed as a result.

That 100 farms tested over 24 hours in Dubois County came back negative was a sign control measures appeared to be working, said Denise Derrer, a spokeswoman for the Indiana State Board of Animal Health.

She called the outbreak one of the worst to strike Indiana, adding it could take several weeks before it is known for sure it has been contained.

The infections were reported on Friday and Saturday.

All 60,000 turkeys at the first farm where the bird flu was detected have been euthanised. Not all the 250,000 had yet been killed, Derrer said, though she did not have specific figures.

Most of the additional tests were done within about a 9km radius of the infected farms. But some producers tested farms outside that radius - a few even in Illinois near the Indiana border, Derrer said.

"They want to make sure it is not being spread," she said.

Confirmation of new bird flu cases alarmed industry officials after the spread of the H5N2 virus last year. That outbreak led to the deaths of about 48 million turkeys and chickens.

The H7N8 virus has not yet been found in wild birds, suggesting the virus could have developed in wild birds that spent the winter in southern Indiana, USDA spokeswoman Andrea McNally said on Friday.

No new bird flu cases at US turkey farms

JAN 18 2016, 5:58 PM ET

Could Spread of Zika Virus Be Linked to Climate Change?

by TOM COSTELLO and CORKY SIEMASZKO


The proliferation of the Zika virus could be linked to climate change, a top researcher told NBC News on Monday.

Zika, which is suspected of causing severe birth defects in Brazil and has now been found in Hawaii, is a tropical virus spread by mosquitoes whose numbers are exploding as the earth gets warmer.

"Their lifestyles, their behaviors, the speed with which they grow up is tightly related to climate," Heidi Brown at the University of Arizona said.

El Niño, which is not caused by climate change, could also raise temperatures in areas where mosquitoes are already common in the U.S. — and turn a problem into a plague.


Female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are kept in a container at the Biomedical Sciences Institute in the Sao Paulo's University, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Jan. 18, 2016. Andre Penner / AP

"The idea is that mosquitoes might start emerging earlier in the year, as it's warming up earlier in the year," Brown said.
Related: Zika Virus: Five Things You Need to Know
Jeffrey Shaman, an associate professor for environmental health sciences at Columbia University and an expert on mosquito-borne disease transmission, said it is too soon to say for sure that El Niño is helping spread the Zika virus.

"Certainly, changes in meteorological conditions, including temperature and precipitation, in a given locality, might favor mosquito reproduction and/or increase their contact with humans, which might favor Zika transmission," Shaman wrote in an email to NBC News. El Niño "can influence local meteorological conditions."

While Zika is common in Africa and Asia, it did not begin spreading in the Western Hemisphere until last May, when an outbreak occurred in Brazil. There is currently no vaccine for Zika.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/...change-n499156

Mon Jan 18, 2016 5:02pm EST

Zika virus scare spreads as Brazil gears up for Carnival, Olympics

RIO DE JANEIRO | BY PAULO PRADA


Male Aedes albopictus mosquitoes are seen in this picture. Zika virus is among the viruses spead by the species.
REUTERS/MA QIANG/SOUTHERN METROPOLIS DAILY

Olympic and tourism officials in Brazil downplayed risks for foreign visitors from the mosquito-borne Zika virus on Monday, even as the health ministry warned pregnant women to consult doctors before visiting the country amid a widening scare.

Alarm over the virus, linked to a rising number of mental birth defects among children of mothers infected by it, comes two weeks before nationwide Carnival celebrations, a highlight of Brazil's tourism calendar.

It also comes 200 days before Rio de Janeiro hosts the opening ceremonies of the 2016 Olympics, the first in South America.

Following a warning by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week that pregnant women should not travel to 14 countries and territories in the Caribbean and Latin America where the virus has spread, Brazil's health ministry said pregnant women should seek medical advice before visiting.

Municipal authorities in São Paulo, the country's biggest city, said they had distributed faster testing materials to help public hospitals identify patients infected with dengue, another mosquito-borne virus whose outbreaks have worsened in recent years.

Despite the growing alarm, local officials in the run-up to the Olympics and Carnival say current measures to prevent the spread of Zika and other mosquito-borne viruses should be enough to ensure that tourists and locals minimize the chance of infection.

Cities across Brazil are working to educate residents about the dangers of pooled and stagnant water, where mosquitoes reproduce, and in some cases have targeted breeding areas with insecticides. Efforts are particularly intense in the northeast, where most infections and Zika-related birth defects are concentrated.

In Rio, more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to the south of the worst-affected regions, Olympic and tourism officials say they are heeding government warnings but see no signs of trip cancellations or of disruption to the Games, which begin Aug. 5.

"The Olympic and Paralympic venues will be inspected on a daily basis," said Philip Wilkinson, a spokesman for Rio 2016, adding that organizers are following guidance from local and federal health officials. He noted that the August weather, near the end of the local winter, will be less propitious for mosquitoes than if the games were held in the summer.

Expected to attract as many as 500,000 foreign visitors to Rio, the Olympics are small compared with the tourism generated annually in the city and across the country by Carnival.

Even in the state of Pernambuco, the epicenter of the Zika outbreak and a historic hub of Carnival revelry, officials said tourism has not been hit.

"There are at least as many reservations as last year and in the case of some hotels even more," said Alexandre Albuquerque, a spokesman for the state tourism secretary. He said Carnival, which this year starts the first week of February, attracted 1.5 million tourists last year.

Still, authorities across Brazil are reminding visitors to take precautions, such as using insect repellent and long sleeves to avoid mosquito bites.

Brazil's health ministry in November confirmed the Zika virus was linked to a fetal deformation known as microcephaly, in which infants are born with smaller-than-usual brains.

Since October, at least 3,500 suspected cases of microcephaly have been reported by the health ministry, over 30 times more than had been reported each year since 2010.

The Zika virus is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which is also known to carry the dengue, yellow fever and Chikungunya viruses.

Health experts are unsure why the virus has spread so rapidly in Brazil, but warn that big tourism events may provide the virus with opportunities to multiply and spread to other parts of the world.

Last week, U.S. health authorities confirmed the birth of a baby with microcephaly in Hawaii. The mother, they said, had been infected with the Zika virus while visiting Brazil last year.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-health-idUSKCN0UW1H4

Two cases of the Zika virus found in Miami-Dade

The Florida Department of Health on Tuesday confirmed that three people — two of whom are in Miami-Dade County —contracted the mosquito-borne Zika virus while visiting South America.

The virus, which may cause a fever, rash, joint pain, conjunctivitis and could be dangerous for pregnant women or women of childbearing age, is quickly spreading through South America, Central America and the Caribbean, the health department said Tuesday. The two Miami-Dade cases involve people who traveled to Colombia in December; a third case in Hillsborough County, where Tampa is, involves someone who traveled to Venezuela in December.

And the while no cases have been contracted in Florida, officials are still warning everyone to be cautious of the disease, which may be linked to babies born with small, undeveloped brains in Brazil.

“We encourage Florida residents and visitors to protect themselves from all mosquito-borne illnesses by draining standing water; covering their skin with repellent and clothing; covering windows with screens; and other basic precautions included in ‘drain and cover,” the Health Department said.

The announcement of three confirmed cases comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued travel restrictions for women of childbearing age because of the Zika outbreak. According to the CDC, the disease can cause birth defects.

“Out of an abundance of caution, pregnant women [are] advised to consider postponing travel to areas where Zika virus transmission is ongoing,” the CDC said in a statement.

Among the countries travelers are being warned against going to: Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela. The disease has also been found in Puerto Rico.

Dr. Aileen Marty, a Florida International University professor and physician who specializes in infectious diseases, said while the mosquitoes in the continental United States do not have the virus “they can acquire it and amplify it.”

“We are not there now, but the reality is it can happen,” she said. “It is spreading like wildfire in some places.”

On Monday, Haitian health officials confirmed that the Zika virus, which was first discovered in Uganda in 1947, was present in the Caribbean country.

The CDC said the virus, which is similar to other mosquito-borne illnesses such as dengue fever and chikungunya, can be prevented by taking steps to avoid mosquito bites. There is no vaccine to prevent the virus and no medicine to treat Zika.

“The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting from several days to a week,” the CDC said. “Severe disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon.”

Marty suggests wearing dark clothing, applying repellant and avoiding drinking beer outside. Beer attracts mosquitoes, she said.

She said the biggest concern about the virus is for woman of childbearing age because research has shown a link between the disease and an increase in babies being born with microcephaly, a condition in which children are born with damaged, smaller than normal brains.

Earlier this year, the Hawaii Department of Health issued a statement that the CDC confirmed that the Zika virus was found in a baby recently born with microcephaly on Oahu, the island that’s home to Honolulu.

“The mother likely had Zika infection when she was residing abroad in May 2015,” the statement said. “Neither the baby nor the mother are infectious, and there was never a risk of transmission in Hawaii.”

Read more here: Two cases of the Zika virus found in Miami-Dade

2 Illinois pregnant women test positive for Zika virus



POSTED:JAN 19 2016 04:09PM CST
UPDATED:JAN 19 2016 06:43PM CST

CHICAGO (STMW) - Two pregnant Illinois women who recently traveled abroad have tested positive for the Zika virus.
The women recently returned from an area where the virus is found, which includes Brazil, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico and other areas of South and Central America, according to IDPH.

Zika, like West Nile virus, is contracted through mosquito bites, and is usually mild, but there is a possible link between the virus and birth defects in children, according to a statement from the Illinois Department of Public Health.

“There is virtually no risk to Illinois residents since you cannot contract Zika virus from another person, but only through the bite of an infected mosquito,” IDPH Director Dr. Nirav Shah said in the statement.

“But since this is a time of year when people travel to warmer climates and countries where Zika virus is found, we are urging residents, especially pregnant women, to take preventive measures when traveling in affected countries and check health travel advisories,” Shah said.

An IDPH spokesman would not say where in Illinois the infected pregnant women live, and would ot disclose their ages.

A spokesman for the Cook County Department of Public Health said the department had not been notified of any cases in Cook County.

Common symptoms, which can last for several days to weeks, include fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis, IDPH said.

There is no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat the virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel alert for people going to countries where the virus is found.

There have been reports of microcephaly and other poor pregnancy outcomes in babies in Brazil when mothers are infected, but the CDC said more studies are needed.

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Health Officials Say Five U.S. Residents Have Tested Positive for Zika Virus

The five, including two pregnant women, visited countries where mosquito-borne virus is circulating

ENLARGE
Zika virus is spread primarily by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, commonly known as the yellow fever mosquito. PHOTO: PATRICE COPPEE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES


By BETSY MCKAY

Jan. 20, 2016 11:25 a.m. ET

Five U.S. residents, including at least two pregnant women, have tested positive for the Zika virus after traveling to countries where it is circulating, health authorities said.

The two pregnant women, both Illinois residents, are being monitored by their doctors, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The remaining three include two residents of Miami-Dade County, Fla. who traveled to Colombia in December, and a resident of Hillsborough County, Fla., who went to Venezuela in December.

5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT ZIKA VIRUS

The new cases show how awareness of Zika and its symptoms—fever, rash, red eyes—has heightened in the past several days, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned pregnant women to avoid travel to 14 countries and territories in Latin America where Zika is circulating.

Laboratory analyses by the CDC show a link between the mosquito-borne virus and a rising number of cases in Brazil of microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with undersized brains and skulls.

The CDC also said this week that pregnant women who do contract Zika virus should undergo regular ultrasounds to monitor growth of their fetuses.

Health officials say the new cases don’t mean that Zika is starting to spread in the U.S. The virus is spread by mosquitoes, not person to person, and mosquito populations are lower in the winter, health officials have said.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/health-o...rus-1453307103