As summer winds down, deadly mosquitoes still thrive and multiply in places like Florida, where it stays hot all year in the southern part of the state and until December or January in the northern part. Don’t let the calendar or cooler temperatures make you complacent. Mosquitoes carry Zika, a serious infectious disease that causes many birth defects in unborn babies, the most serious and most common of which is microcephaly.
According to the CDC, 2,722 cases of Zika have been reported in the United States. In US territories, that number is a staggering 14,059. Of the nearly 3,000 stateside cases, Florida has over 500 Zika cases, and all of them were transmitted in the Miami-Dade County area, more specifically, in the Wynwood and Miami Beach neighborhoods. If you live in or travel to these areas – or any high-risk area – you are at risk of contracting the Zika virus if you are bitten by a mosquito.
As of August 18, the CDC confirms that over 580 pregnant women in the United States are infected with Zika.
The Zika virus is also rapidly spreading in Puerto Rico, and the CDC reports that “if current trends continue, at least 1 in 4 people . . . may become infected with Zika.”
Zika is spread when an Aedes mosquito who has bitten an infected person bites you and passes the infection to you. According to WebMD, these mosquitoes are in every country in North, Central, and South America except Canada and continental Chile, and are most abundant in hotter climates.
Zika is also transmitted sexually by an infected person to his or her partner. “Sex” includes vaginal, anal, and oral. The virus lives in semen, vaginal fluids, blood, and urine. Zika can be transmitted by a person who has no symptoms, who has symptoms, and whose symptoms have ended. The CDC recommends that men wait 6 months and women 2 months before having sex after traveling to a high-risk area, especially if the couple is trying to conceive a child.
When a pregnant woman is infected, she passes the virus to her unborn baby, to whom the virus is deadly. In addition to causing microcephaly and other birth defects, the Zika virus can also cause miscarriages and still births. The disease is most dangerous in the first and early part of the second trimesters of pregnancy.
Microcephaly is a birth defect in which the brain does not develop normally. Babies with the disorder have extremely small heads because their brain did not develop normally or stopped developing altogether.
There is no vaccine and no treatment for this virus.
Symptoms
Most people have no symptoms. WebMD states that only 1 in 5 people are symptomatic. When people do show symptoms, these symptoms can last from a few days to over a week and include
- Fever
- Rash
- Joint pain
- Conjunctivitis
And less commonly
- Muscle pain
- Headache
A simple blood or urine test will confirm the presence of the Zika virus. You should get tested immediately if you have traveled to a high-risk area and have these symptoms.
How to Protect Yourself and Others
The CDC makes the following preventive recommendations, especially for pregnant women, their partners, and couples trying to conceive:
- Check travel warnings. Know the risk in the area to which you are traveling. The CDC “Travel Health Notices” page: http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices
- If you are pregnant and have a partner who has traveled to a high-risk area, engage in sex only with a condom, every time, or, preferably, abstain for six months.
- If you are pregnant, do not travel to high-risk areas.
- Use EPA-registered insect repellent. It works, says the CDC.
- If you use sunscreen, put it on first and the insect repellent second.
- Stay away from standing water, where mosquitoes lay their eggs and where they are most prevalent. Have standing water and objects that collect it removed from around your home.
- Stay inside air-conditioned places or places with screens on windows and doors, especially when mosquitoes are most active during the day.
- If you have no air conditioning, sleep surrounded by a mosquito net.
- If you go out, cover yourself. Wear long sleeves and long pants.
We are Advanced Bio Treatment, and we care about the communities we serve. We want to help you protect yourself against the threat of infectious disease. Should you need our services, please call us at 800-295-1684. We give free quotes, provide emergency services, work with your insurance company, and respond 24/7/365.
Sources:
