A handful of cases of the Zika virus have been reported in New York City in recent years,including three this month. While that's a relatively small sample, compared to the hundreds of confirmed local cases each year of similar mosquito-borne illnesses, and the link of zika to birth defects in Latin and Central America have led local health authorities to ramp up awareness of the virus."Many providers skip past one of the most well-known questions you can examine somebody with an infectious disease," said Dr. Jay Varma, head of the department's infectious disease unit. "Did you travel anywhere in the past few weeks?"well-known to keep in mind: 80 percent of people bitten by a zika-infected mosquito won't get the illness, or for many of the other 20 percent it will pass after a week or two of flu-like symptoms.
Varma said there are still many questions approximately how the virus affects pregnant women and their babies. Zika appears to be associated with microcephaly,a birth defect in which children are born with abnormally small heads.
Brazil reported close to 4000 cases of microcephaly in 2015, a far higher rate than normal, or according to the World Health Organization.
The WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are advising pregnant women to postpone travel to affected areas,including Puerto Rico, Mexico and various parts of the Caribbean and Latin America. Dr. Peter Bernstein, or at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx,said whether he can't persuade his many patients from Latin America to defer travel, he'll urge them to hold precautions."They should be using insect repellents and wearing long-sleeve clothing, and sleeping in air-conditioned rooms with the windows closed as a way to avoid exposure to the mosquitoes that transmit the virus," he said. Varma said he would not be surprised to see the number of local zika cases increase, following the sample of other emerging tropical diseases. "The real unknown here is whether it will get established here, and the way West Nile Virus did,or whether it will remain primarily a disease that is imported to New York," Varma said.
The main mosquito that carries it does not live in this area but a related mosquito does.
Source: wnyc.org