US health officials on Friday issued a travel warning for 14 countries and territories in the Caribbean and Latin America where infection with Zika, a mosquito-borne virus, is a risk.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in particular cautioned pregnant women not to travel to those areas as Zika has been linked to a serious birth defects.
The travel alert applies to Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela, and the US Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
It also includes advice that women who are trying to become pregnant should consult with their doctor before traveling to those areas.
Zika (ZEE’-ka) is the name of a virus discovered in a monkey in the Zika forest of Uganda in 1947. It is native to tropical Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. But infections have exploded recently in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is spread through bites from the same kind of mosquitoes that can spread other tropical diseases, like chikungunya and dengue fever.
Experts think that only about 1 in 5 people who are infected with the Zika virus develop any symptoms. For those that do, Zika illness usually involves fever, rash, joint pain, and red eyes — which usually last no more than a week. There is no medicine or vaccine for it. Hospitalizations are rare, and deaths from Zika have not been reported.
Two reasons. First, there’s been growing evidence linking Zika infection in pregnant women to a rare condition called microcephaly, in which the head is smaller than normal and the brain has not developed properly. U.S. health officials are heading to Brazil, where there’s been a recent spike in the birth defect, to further study the actual risk to pregnant women. More than 3,500 cases have been reported in Brazil since October.
Second, the threat seems to be moving closer. Infections are occurring in our southern neighbour, Mexico, and the kind of mosquitoes that can carry the virus are found along the southern United States, too. Experts think it’s likely the pests may end up spreading the virus here, though probably on a smaller scale than what’s been seen in the tropics.
Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Protection advised US travellers to take protect themselves against mosquito bites if they visit places in Latin America or the Caribbean where Zika has been spreading. The advice includes wearing long sleeves and long pants and using insect repellent.
On Friday, the CDC came out with an alert asking pregnant women — at any stage of pregnancy — to postpone travel to 14 destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In Brazil, most of the mothers who had babies with the condition — called microcephaly — were apparently infected during the first trimester, but there is some evidence the birth defect can occur later in the pregnancy, said the CDC’s Dr. Cynthia Moore.
Another CDC official, Dr. Lyle Petersen, said the virus seems to remain in the blood only about a week or two.
Why hasn’t a link between Zika and the birth defect been noted earlier? Previous outbreaks were much smaller, and the problem may have occurred less often — and so was harder to recognize, he said.
There’s another travel alert for pregnant women already in place, discouraging travel to areas where malaria is spreading.
(With agency inputs)
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