A mosquito-borne disease that has been reported across South and Central America, the Caribbean and the US Virgin Islands. If you have booked a trip to the continent or are planning to attend the 2016 Olympics then here’s our travel guide to the Zika virus:
Very normal actually. Mosquitoes have been carrying diseases for centuries. They carry dengue, malaria, elephantiasis, and chikungunya. Most of these viruses are much more deadly and dangerous than the latest outbreak of Zika.
What’s more, SARS in 2003, MERS in 2012, and Ebola in 2014 were also a lot worse.
Right now, we don’t have all of the information. The World Health Organisation and the US Centers for Disease Control are studying the disease and learning more all the time. There is currently no vaccine or a cure, however, it isn’t fatal, and most people who have the virus do not know they have it and show very few symptoms.
Complications of the virus are the only worrying part. These are thought to cause Guillain-Barre syndrome – a neurological disease that can lead to paralysis and can cause birth defects in unborn babies. However, these complications happen very rarely.
Most people who contract the virus don’t get any symptoms, and most of the people that do (one in five) feel symptoms like fever, a body rash, and conjunctivitis that clear from the body after around two to seven days.
At the moment, the virus is affecting two dozen countries in South and Central America, the US Virgin Islands and the Caribbean. The group of people that are of the highest concern to the WHO are pregnant women, because there is a concern that the virus may cause microcephaly in unborn babies – a disease that stops babies’ brains from growing.
Secondly, the group is also concerned about the high numbers of people who are set to travel to Brazil for the Olympics this year. Brazil is one of the places that is most affected by the virus, but there is plenty you can do to help prevent yourself from contracting the disease while you are away:
The chances of contracting the virus are still very slim, but ultimately, it’s always best to check the status of the virus and be very careful if you are pregnant or trying to be this year.
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