Pregnant Americans contract Zika virus while travelling, health warning issued
Source: Brisbane Times
Pregnant Americans contract Zika virus while travelling, health warning issued
Date January 20, 2016 - 1:35PM
Blythe Bernhard
St Louis: Two pregnant women from Illinois have contracted the mosquito-borne Zika virus while travelling in Honduras and Haiti, while a baby was born with the virus in Hawaii raising fears the virus is spreading to the US.
Zika has been linked to potentially fatal birth defects in Brazil, where authorities have linked it to a spike in newborns with microcephaly, or underdeveloped brains. The virus has been found in the Caribbean, Central America and South America.
The two women are being monitored by doctors but the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a health warning for travel to countries where the virus is circulating including Puerto Rico, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname and Venezuela. Pregnant women are advised not to travel to those locations.
Health officials in Jamaica have advised women to delay pregnancy for six to 12 months while in Brazil officials have been telling women to consider not falling pregnant until more is known about the dangers to newborns
Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/pregnant-americans-contract-zika-virus-while-travelling-health-warning-issued-20160120-gm9sqp.html#ixzz3xkmujgP7
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