CDC confirms baby born in Hawaii with Zika virus

[terracore]

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) -
A baby born in an Oahu hospital has tested positive for the Zika virus -- a mosquito-borne infection that can have serious health impacts, health officials announced on Friday. But they say there is no risk of transmission in Hawaii.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed that the baby carried the virus and said the child's mother likely became infected while living in Brazil in May 2015.

Neither the baby nor the mother are infectious, health officials say.

Since 2014, six people have tested positive for the infection after acquiring it in another country. So far, there has never been a case of Zika acquired in Hawaii.

The virus is spread to people through mosquito bites. The most common symptoms are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis. The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting from several days to a week.

The news comes as the state grapples with its largest dengue fever outbreak to date. That disease, which is also passed on through mosquitos, is centered on the Big Island of Hawaii.

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/30980...18978251=1

Those GMO mosquitoes are sounding better every day!

[pahoated]

The hawaiinewsnow article isn't mentioning this baby was born with brain damage. It was kind of a mystery the way the article is describing it, the baby and mother carrying the virus now but not infectious. Getting bit sounds like a mosquito borne virus, like malaria and dengue but this affect on pregnant women is really shocking. Seems like all the Hawaii ports would want to be testing anybody coming from Brazil.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/health....html?_r=0


"Aloha also means goodbye. Aloha!"

[terracore]

Well unlike Hawaii, Brazil is doing something about it: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/...cmp=hplnws

"Brazil announces funding for development of Zika virus vaccine"

This is coming at a time when Brazil's economy is getting killed and their treasury bonds downgraded to "junk" status.

[Midnight Rambler]

The strange thing about this is that it seems to be only in Brazil that this deformity is happening, even though the virus has spread all over. It didn't get much notice before because it's a pretty mild illness. So it suggests that either it's mutated to a different strain there, or else there's some co-factor going on. Unfortunately, if it's the latter, it's entirely possible that it could be something like previous infection with dengue...

[YurtGirl]

The CDC is testing for this along with Dengue and Chickungunya Virus.

Melissa Fletcher
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"Make yurts, not war" Bill Coperthwaite, 1973