By 10News Staff
Miami -- Three new cases of Zika transmission (click here) were announced by the Florida Department of Health on Wednesday.
Testing for Zika should apply to all donation centers and hospitals.
November 16, 2016
By Rhonda Roberts
Appleton, Wis. (WBAY) – The Community Blood Center (click here) is testing all blood donations for the Zika virus.
That means the waiting period for donors who have visited active Zika areas is no longer necessary.
Previously, people who visited Zika areas or could have been exposed to the virus were prevented from making blood donations.
“This additional test allows us to welcome back donors who had traveled to an active Zika area and were deferred,” says Kris Belanger, Vice President, Donor Services.
Wisconsin has no locally-acquired cases of Zika, a virus which is transmitted by mosquitoes. Zika can be transmitted by pregnant mothers to a fetus and cause babies to be born with small heads....
There are more complications to a Zika infection that will weaken victims response to therapy.
November 14, 2016
By Maggie Fox
Two studies out Monday (click here) show that the Zika virus may not be working alone in causing strange infections in South America. It may be getting help from dengue and chikungunya, too.
One team found that mosquitoes can be infected with Zika and chikungunya at the same time and could, in theory, infect people with both viruses in a single bite....
Zika lives on surfaces outside the body for at least eight hours. Proper disinfecting is a requirement when ending dangers to Zika.
November 15, 2016
Zika virus (click here) can be transmitted from an environmental source—underscored by a worker infected from a needle stick injury in a Pennsylvania lab earlier this year—and a study today found that it can survive several hours on nonporous surfaces but is easily killed by commonly used disinfectants.
Two of cases of Zika were acquired locally by Miami-Dade residents. The third case is a Broward County resident who frequently traveled to Miami-Dade.
Investigators are working to pinpoint where the Broward victim was exposed to Zika, but said that the transmission did not occur in Broward.
A fourth Zika diagnosis was found in an individual who had traveled outside of South Florida. The exact location of transmission is unknown and the case is undetermined....Testing for Zika should apply to all donation centers and hospitals.
November 16, 2016
By Rhonda Roberts
Appleton, Wis. (WBAY) – The Community Blood Center (click here) is testing all blood donations for the Zika virus.
That means the waiting period for donors who have visited active Zika areas is no longer necessary.
Previously, people who visited Zika areas or could have been exposed to the virus were prevented from making blood donations.
“This additional test allows us to welcome back donors who had traveled to an active Zika area and were deferred,” says Kris Belanger, Vice President, Donor Services.
Wisconsin has no locally-acquired cases of Zika, a virus which is transmitted by mosquitoes. Zika can be transmitted by pregnant mothers to a fetus and cause babies to be born with small heads....
There are more complications to a Zika infection that will weaken victims response to therapy.
November 14, 2016
By Maggie Fox
Two studies out Monday (click here) show that the Zika virus may not be working alone in causing strange infections in South America. It may be getting help from dengue and chikungunya, too.
One team found that mosquitoes can be infected with Zika and chikungunya at the same time and could, in theory, infect people with both viruses in a single bite....
Zika lives on surfaces outside the body for at least eight hours. Proper disinfecting is a requirement when ending dangers to Zika.
November 15, 2016
Zika virus (click here) can be transmitted from an environmental source—underscored by a worker infected from a needle stick injury in a Pennsylvania lab earlier this year—and a study today found that it can survive several hours on nonporous surfaces but is easily killed by commonly used disinfectants.
In other developments, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) in a holiday travel warning yesterday said local spread is occurring in many of Mexico's most popular tourist destinations and in one state that borders Arizona....
Vaccinations from Yellow Fever seem to be entering the demographics of micrpcephaly. It seems as though women vaccinated from Yellow Fever do better in defending their fetus from the effects of Zika. The evidence to the Yellow Fever vaccine is not conclusive, but, early estimates point to that as a potential in ending the horrors of Zika.
There is another variant that has not been explored and that is abortions. Women are learning about the disease and as they do there can be more abortions performed to eliminate Zika effected pregnancies. That may also be the difference between Columbia and Brazil.
Columbia receives a fair amount of USA support. (click here) That has been true since the 1990s and again after September 11th. There may be a stronger Western presence in some of Columbia's structures. Anthropologists may want to record the difference in culture, including medical culture, between the three countries of Brazil, Columbia and the USA. Columbia tends to take international policy from the USA as well.
November 16, 2016
By Dina Fine Maron
...In Colombia, (click here) where the number of known Zika infections is second only to Brazil, there have been relatively few cases of related birth defects: 57 compared with more than 2,000 in Brazil, according to the World Health Organization. The U.S. has the third-highest number of Zika-related birth defects, with 31 combined cases and lost pregnancies due to miscarriage. The exact ratio of Zika infections to birth defects in each country remains difficult to determine, partly because so many Zika patients do not appear symptomatic, but what is clear is that birth defect rates are uneven.
That inexplicable geographic variability fueled speculation among scientists attending the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Meeting in Atlanta this week about what is causing the disparate patterns of Zika-related birth defects. Some answers may come from comparing the northeastern part of Brazil, where birth defects are the most common, to the rest of Brazil and Colombia, says Pedro Fernando da Costa Vasconcelos, director of Brazil’s National Reference Laboratory for Arboviruses....
Vaccinations from Yellow Fever seem to be entering the demographics of micrpcephaly. It seems as though women vaccinated from Yellow Fever do better in defending their fetus from the effects of Zika. The evidence to the Yellow Fever vaccine is not conclusive, but, early estimates point to that as a potential in ending the horrors of Zika.
There is another variant that has not been explored and that is abortions. Women are learning about the disease and as they do there can be more abortions performed to eliminate Zika effected pregnancies. That may also be the difference between Columbia and Brazil.
Columbia receives a fair amount of USA support. (click here) That has been true since the 1990s and again after September 11th. There may be a stronger Western presence in some of Columbia's structures. Anthropologists may want to record the difference in culture, including medical culture, between the three countries of Brazil, Columbia and the USA. Columbia tends to take international policy from the USA as well.
By Dina Fine Maron
...In Colombia, (click here) where the number of known Zika infections is second only to Brazil, there have been relatively few cases of related birth defects: 57 compared with more than 2,000 in Brazil, according to the World Health Organization. The U.S. has the third-highest number of Zika-related birth defects, with 31 combined cases and lost pregnancies due to miscarriage. The exact ratio of Zika infections to birth defects in each country remains difficult to determine, partly because so many Zika patients do not appear symptomatic, but what is clear is that birth defect rates are uneven.
That inexplicable geographic variability fueled speculation among scientists attending the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Annual Meeting in Atlanta this week about what is causing the disparate patterns of Zika-related birth defects. Some answers may come from comparing the northeastern part of Brazil, where birth defects are the most common, to the rest of Brazil and Colombia, says Pedro Fernando da Costa Vasconcelos, director of Brazil’s National Reference Laboratory for Arboviruses....
