The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) reported they sprayed mosquitoes in more than 1.4 million acres ravaged by Hurricane Harvey. Officials plan to thwart the winged insects from breeding across multiple waterlogged counties, preventing a surge in their population and the diseases they carry, notably West Nile and Zika viruses.
The mosquitos that can carry the Zika virus have reportedly appeared in 129 California cities. With cold winter weather the only major obstacle to the Zika virus becoming America’s first pandemic since the 1957 Asian Flu, ground zero for a potential pandemic is now the West Coast.
Though national news of Zika infections have quieted with a winter slowdown in spread of the disease, San Diego, California recently saw the first baby born with a severe Zika-related birth defect.
The year winds down with yet more Zika reported in Texas. While travel-related, the latest case marks the first case of the virus in Hays County.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded nearly $10 million to the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston to study emerging and exotic pathogens such as Zika. This announcement came as Texas reported its sixth locally-transmitted case of the virus.
While the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the global Zika outbreak no longer an emergency this week, officials in Brazil fear that the incoming spring season will provide a boost to the nation’s mosquito population, and the government will be ill-prepared to stop a second wave of Zika.
When Hurricane Matthew strikes Florida, it is expected to boost the volume of Zika-infected mosquitos in the U.S., wipe out the effectiveness of anti-Zika pesticide spraying, and potentially spread the so-called Zika “danger zone” up the East Coast.
A new study published in the British medical journal Lancet reveals a “striking magnitude of association between microcephaly and Zika virus infection” and warns readers to “prepare for a global epidemic of microcephaly and other manifestations of congenital Zika syndrome.”
Preliminary results published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) found that of nearly 12,000 pregnant women from Columbia who were infected with the Zika virus, none gave birth to babies with microcephaly. While four cases of the brain defect were reported with mothers who did not have Zika symptoms and were not participating in the study, that number of cases is what would statistically be expected.
Singapore has become the first Asian country to document active local Zika transmission, confirming up to 115 locally acquired cases so far. The tropical island, long an attractive destination for Indian and Chinese tourists, threatens to take the epidemic ravaging Latin America and south Florida global.
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) has published a new study finding that the Zika virus is tied to a second severe health condition in unborn children and infants: arthrogryposis, a condition in which an infant’s joints are deformed, making their limbs barely functional.
The State of Texas confirmed its first Zika-related fatality in Harris County, shortly after an infant was born whose mother recently traveled to Latin America. This marks the second death in the United States.
Two of 21 California women with confirmed cases of Zika virus have delivered babies with the birth defect microcephaly in connection with the Zika infection.
The top-rated Texas Children’s Hospital Pavilion for Women in Houston will open a Zika clinic for pregnant women at risk for contracting the virus. Hospital officials say the clinic is the first of its kind in the Lone Star State.
An infant has been born in New York City with Zika-triggered microcephaly, raising fears that the number of such cases within the continental United States will skyrocket throughout the summer.
A Colombian mother came to Harris County, Texas during her third trimester of pregnancy. Her baby was born with Zika-linked microcephaly, a congenital birth defect where the head and brain are only partially developed. If just 100 of these babies are born in the state, it would cost taxpayers over a billion dollars during the lifetimes of the children. The cost for the 400 pregnant women who have tested positive for Zika in the U.S. to date, would total almost $4 billion.
Texas public health officials confirmed the birth of a baby boy in Harris County with Zika-linked microcephaly, the congenital birth defect where a newborn’s head and brain are only partially developed. This marks the first live birth of a baby with Zika-related microcephaly in the Lone Star State.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have confirmed that six infants have been born in U.S. states with birth defects following their mother’s infection with the Zika virus. 234 women in the continental United States have tested positive for Zika.
150 public health experts are calling on the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Olympic Commission (IOC) to postpone or relocate the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in response to the outbreak of Zika virus in that city that has infected thousands and caused thousands of cases of birth defects in infants.
The United States is already home to hundreds of Zika patients, with a local transmission hub in the territory of Puerto Rico. But health officials are warning that Zika-carrying mosquitos could be sweeping the continental U.S. within the next month, making it extremely difficult for the government to track who has Zika and prevent it from spreading.
The mayor of Rio de Janeiro, the host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, insisted that the spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus “is not a big issue” days after Brazilian researchers warned the disease has mutated into something “more dangerous.”
A new study has allowed scientists to watch the Zika virus destroy nascent brain cells in mice fetuses, proving definitively the link between the virus and birth defects in humans as well as cementing suspicions that the strain of Zika spreading in Latin America is a more dangerous mutation than those seen previously.
Williamson County confirmed its first case of the Zika virus on Tuesday. The person was infected when they traveled to a country plagued by the virus. A traveled-related Zika virus case in Collin County was also reported on Monday.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) says that during the 1950s and 1960s, Brazil successfully eliminated the mosquito carrying the Zika virus through the use of DDT.
Sen. Marco Rubio is joining Senate Democrats in urging the GOP to approve President Barack Obama’s request for $1.9 billion in emergency funding for Zika virus research.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that it has been able to confirm that the Zika virus causes microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome.
The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking to transfer $510 million in money allocated to fighting the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in west Africa to preventing a similar outbreak of Zika in the United States, officials announced Wednesday.
The government of Colombia has confirmed 32 cases of infant birth defects tied to the Zika virus, while a total number of 50 cases are investigated for ties to the disease. While birth defects tied to Zika have been rampant in Brazil, these are the first cases outside the epicenter of the Zika outbreak currently underway in South America.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a warning about travel to Cuba after authorities reported Zika on the communist island.
Scientists have confirmed that the Zika virus, which has infected upwards of one million people in Latin America, can severely damage the brains of unborn children. Now a new study suggests the virus may also trigger brain infections in adults that can cause the brain and spinal cord to swell, causing intense damage to the nervous system.
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that sexual transmission of the Zika virus is more common than previously believed, especially male carriers infecting women. WHO also reported mounting evidence for the connection between Zika, birth defects, and neurological disorders, such as Guillain-Barre syndrome.
The Florida government has confirmed five new Zika cases, including another pregnant woman. This brings the total number of cases of pregnant women carrying the Zika virus in Florida to four.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that at least two pregnant women who tested positive for the Zika virus chose to abort their babies.
The Florida Department of Health has confirmed that three pregnant women have Zika after the World Health Organization (WHO) warned the Zika outbreak could get worse before it gets better.
Colombian health officials announced a “probable” microcephaly case in an aborted fetus and discovered the Zika virus in the amniotic fluid.
A Colombian businessman has fully recovered from the Zika virus after doctors diagnosed him in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Fearing a global pandemic, the South Korean Science Ministry has announced plans to invest 3 billion won ($2,438,910) in Zika research.
The Brazilian Health Ministry has confirmed that the Zika virus has caused “most” of the microcephaly cases recorded following its discovery in the country.
The research group Fiocruz announced it will investigate a recent miscarriage that occurred after the mother contracted Zika. It could be the first miscarriage in Rio de Janeiro caused by the virus.
Microcephaly, babies born with small heads and underdeveloped brains, is one of the grim consequences that has been laid at the feet of the Zika viral outbreak.