well, zika was first described, actually,in uganda way back in the 1940s. and it was actually probably hiding out in monkeys. thereit was first discovered in a zoo in monkeys and then it spread to a few human cases. prettyquiet over the years and then popped up again all of a sudden in 2007, in the south pacificin micronesia, actually. and then there was another outbreak a couple of years ago intahiti and somehow it's gotten from asia now to the americas. there was a big outbreakin tahiti and the speculation is that it came with the world cup. that somehow because ofall the fans that came to brazil, during the world cup in 2014, that the disease jumpedthere. so, it's in humans. it's transmitted by a mosquito called aedes aegypti and maybeother species of aedes mosquito. so it doesn't
to be established in a reservoir of monkeysin latin america. right now it's a human to human epidemic. for the person that's actuallyinfected that's not pregnant, it is just like a bad flu with a rash. it is fever, headache,some conjunctivitis, maybe some mild joint pains. and it really just lasts, along witha mild rash, really just lasts for a few days. so just like a flu. there have been reportsfrom brazil of around 4 thousand babies that were born with microcephaly, small heads anda number of still births and spontaneous abortions, miscarriages. this seems to be occurring inthe very same areas that have had high rates and big outbreaks of zika, especially in thenortheastern part of brazil. and i think we have to caution that it's gonna take a longtime, probably a number of months, to really
definitively say that there's an association.you have to do very detailed association and epidemiologic studies. because remember, justbecause a baby is born with a congenital malformation, and has evidence of infection, doesn't meanthat the infection caused the malformation. i think it's important to emphasize, though,that the density of mosquitoes in the united states, is just not what it is in these othercountries. and i would say the density of the population neither. in order to sustainan epidemic, you need a lot of people that are very close together and a lot of mosquitoesthat are very close together and that allows the virus to transmit much more efficiently.we don't have the population densities in the southeastern united states and we don'thave the mosquito densities. so there's really
much less concern that there's gonna be awidespread outbreak here in the united states. there may be some little local outbreaks inneighborhoods or communities that will sort of snuff themselves out with time. for theperson that isn't a woman of childbearing age, i don't have much concern at all. it'sa mild disease. it's like getting the flu. it's a lot less serious than many of the diseasesyou're exposed to when you travel to developing countries. so the advice? mosquito repellantand you'll minimize your risk of getting it. it's more difficult for women of childbearingage. and again the advice would be, out of an abundance of caution until we know if thisassociation is true, that pregnant women should consider not travelling until we know moreabout this disease. and that women who absolutely
want to be cautious, should probably waitfor a period of time, couple of weeks three weeks, after their trip in order to becomepregnant, if they're not already pregnant.
0 Response to "zika virus incubation"
Post a Comment