A Connecticut man died Monday five years after being infected with a rare fatal disease contracted from a mosquito bite in his own backyard, with health officials noting a concerning rise in cases.
Former coronavirus czar Anthony Fauci was hospitalized for six days after contracting the West Nile virus, a spokesperson confirmed.
Dengue fever cases have topped 5.2 million in the Americas, and a United Nations health agency is calling it an “emergency situation.”
Public health officials are urging people to refrain from holding events outside after dusk after three people in Michigan died from a mosquito-borne illness.
Although the eyes of Texas are upon Zika, another mosquito-borne illness claimed its first fatality of 2016 in Dallas County — West Nile Virus (WNV).
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.
Hawaii’s governor David Ige declared a state of emergency for mosquito-borne illnesses on Sunday, including Zika and dengue fever. The latter has been an especially urgent concern, with over 250 confirmed cases of dengue reported during the current outbreak.
Zika is primarily a mosquito-borne virus that is very difficult to detect in most human carriers, currently impossible to cure, spreading very rapidly, and believed to increase the risk of birth defects when contracted by pregnant women.
The annual security briefing delivered to the Senate Intelligence Committee by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has added the Zika virus to the list of infections diseases threatening the United States, on the same list as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Ebola.
The executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) asserts that a lifting of the ban on DDT could prevent the spread of the Zika virus, just as it could have wiped out malaria.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott has declared a public health emergency in four Florida counties where the Zika virus has been detected.
The Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) confirmed 10 cases of the Zika virus statewide on Wednesday while the latest number of reported cases continues to climb.
The Zika virus has reached Canada in the form of four Canadian travelers confirmed to have contracted it by visiting Central America, South America, and the Caribbean.
The first human case of Chikungunya (pronounced chik-un-gun-ya) has been confirmed in Collin County, Texas, located just northeast of Dallas. The infected individual recently traveled to another country and returned to the states with the virus. The risk of spread to Americans is from the virus being imported by travelers. Collin County is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas, statistical area.
