Zika virus

COUNTY OPENS ZIKA OUTREACH CAMPAIGN

 

 


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8 TIPS TO PREVENT ZIKA WHEN TRAVELING

 

East County News Service

August 2, 2017 (San Diego) -- Summer is underway and if you plan on travelling, you should follow these eight tips from the County of San Diego to protect yourself and your loved ones from the Zika virus.

Zika is now found in nearly all South American and Central American countries as well as Mexico, the Caribbean, much of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. (View map)  The Centers for Disease Control also list Florida and Texas as areas of risk in the U.S.


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CHEMICAL MOSQUITO CONTROLS INEFFECTIVE IN ZIKA FIGHT, RESEARCH STUDY FINDS

 

Source:  PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 

December 7, 2016 (Norwich, England) -- Some existing methods for controlling Zika-carrying mosquitos are not effective and may even be counter-productive, according to research by scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA).


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COUNTY TO HAND-SPRAY SPRING VALLEY NEIGHBORHOOD IN TRAVEL-RELATED ZIKA CASE

 

By Gig Connaughton, County of San Diego Communications Office

Image credit: CDC

November 15, 2016 (Spring Valley) - County Vector Control crews will hand-spray a neighborhood in Spring Valley this week to kill invasive Aedes mosquitoes to keep them from potentially spreading the Zika virus after mosquitoes were found near a person who contracted Zika traveling abroad.


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COUNTY TO HAND-SPRAY LEMON GROVE NEIGHBORHOOD DUE TO ZIKA

 

Source: County News Service

September 30, 2016 (Lemon Grove) -- County Vector Control crews plan to hand-spray a neighborhood in Lemon Grove early next week to continue to prevent invasive Aedes mosquitoes from getting the chance to potentially spread the Zika virus.


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BLOODMOBILE DRIVE SEPT. 25: SHORTAGE OF BLOOD DUE TO ZIKA

 

In partnership with the San Diego Blood Bank

East County News Service

September 19, 2016 (El Cajon) -- The San Diego Blood Bank will accept blood donations at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church (2766 Navajo Road) in El Cajon on Sunday, September 25, 2016 from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m.  in the parking lot. All blood types are needed. Current inventory for the universal blood type, O negative, is at critically low levels.


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COUNTY GETS SUBPOENAS, FORCES ABSENT OR RELUCTANT PROPERTY OWNERS TO SUBMIT TO SPRAYING FOR MOSQUITOES DUE TO ZIKA FEARS

 

By Miriam Raftery

September 16, 2016 (San Diego) - This week, San Diego County sprayed a fourth neighborhood (Grant Hill) for mosquitoes due to a travel-related case of Zika virus.


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COUNTY RESPONDS TO CONCERNS OVER IMPACT ON BEES FROM SPRAYING TO CONTROL ZIKA VIRUS

 

By Miriam Raftery

September 8, 2016 (San Diego) – Spraying chemicals to kill Aedes mosquitoes that can transmit Zika virus is being done in communities across the nation where returning travelers have been diagnosed with Zika. But a report in South Carolina of massive bee kills from aerial spraying has raised concerns over how to protect bees from poisoning while also protecting public health from the dangerous Zika virus.


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COUNTY TO SPRAY FOR MOSQUITOES IN ADAMS NORTH NEIGHBORHOOD IN NEW TRAVEL-RELATED ZIKA CASE

 

Normal Heights neighborhood is third locally to be sprayed due to Zika virus

By Gig Conaughton, County of San Diego Communications Office

September 8, 2016 (San Diego) -- County Vector Control plans to hand-spray a neighborhood in the Adams North area of Normal Heights this Friday, to kill Aedes mosquitoes to keep them from being exposed to the Zika virus after a resident there tested positive for the virus.


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TRAVELED TO AN AREA WITH ZIKA? USE BUGSPRAY AFTER COMING HOME

 

By Miriam Raftery

August 21, 2016 (San Diego) – California health officials are warning travelers coming home from Zika-infected places to use insect repellant and practice safe sex for several weeks after coming home—even if you’ve had no symptoms of the virus. Here’s why.

The mosquitoes that can transmit Zika are found in San Diego and other parts of our state.  So far, the local mosquitoes haven’t been found to carry the Zika virus. But if a local mosquito bites a recent traveler with Zika virus in their blood and then bites other people, the virus can spread, causing outbreak here.  Zika virus can also be transmitted via sex for up to six months.


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U.S. DECLARES HEALTH EMERGENCY IN PUERTO RICO, WHERE OVER 10,000 CASES OF ZIKA ARE REPORTED

 

Crisis comes after Congress adjourned without funding emergency Zika expenditures

By Miriam Raftery

August 12, 2016 (Washington D.C.) – Today, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell declared a public health emergency for Puerto Rico, where the rapid spread of Zika virus poses a significant threat to public health particularly for children born to women who contract Zika virus while pregnant, since it causes serious birth defects including brain damage.  Over 10,000 cases of Zika virus have been confirmed in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory.


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ZIKA VIRUS TRANSMITTED BY MOSQUITOES IN FLORIDA: CDC ISSUES TRAVEL WARNING

 

Health officials fault Congress for adjourning without approving Zika emergency funding

By Miriam Raftery

August 1, 2016 (Miami) — Today the Centers for Disease Control issued a travel warning urging pregnant women not to travel to Miami, Florida and additional advice for travelers who have recently visited the region due to the presence of mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus.


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DEPT. OF DEFENSE TAKES ACTION TO PROTECT MILITARY FAMILIES FROM ZIKA

 

By Miriam Raftery

May 21, 2016 (San Diego) -- The Dept. of Defense is taking action to protect military families from the Zika virus, which can cause microcephaly and brain damage in babies if a mother contracts Zika while pregnant. 


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MLB MOVES GAMES FROM PUERTO RICO TO MIAMI AMID CONCERNS OF ZIKA

 

By Liz Alper

Photo courtesy Mtmelendez on Wikipedia

May 6, 2016 (Puerto Rico) - The Pittsburgh Pirates and the Miami Marlins were scheduled to play a two-game series in San Juan, Puerto Rico on May 30th and 31st.


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ZIKA WORSE THAN THOUGHT

 

By Miriam Raftery

May 4, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) -- Top health officials now warn that Zika Virus is even worse than you thought. The World Health Organization recently confirmed that an alarming number of cases of microcephaly in Brazil are caused by the Zika Virus.


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ZIKA: CRISIS OR SENTINEL EVENT?

 

By Jane M. Orient, M.D., Executive Director of Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)

 CDC is in high gear, with politically correct advice on Zika. Meanwhile, cases of dengue in Mexico have topped 10,000. Dengue is caused by a related but far more serious virus, carried by same Aedes aegypti mosquito. And 78,000 people in Africa die every year of another relative, yellow fever. The vector was coming under good control decades ago, but is reemerging now. Asking “why” should be the main response to Zika.

April 27, 2016 (San Diego) -- According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Zika is, like Ebola, a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Now the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated that it is “clear” that the Zika virus causes a serious birth defect, microcephaly (small head).


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ZIKA TEST DEVELOPED BY CALBIOTECH IN SPRING VALLEY

 

By Miriam Raftery

April 4, 2016 (Spring Valley) - A Spring Valley company, Calbiotech Inc., just announced that it has come out with the United State’s first immunoassay kits to detect antibodies against Zika virus in human blood. 


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FIRST SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED ZIKA VIRUS CASE IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY REPORTED

 

Source: County News Service

Photo courtesy CDC

March 25, 2016 (San Diego) -- The first Zika virus case acquired through sexual transmission in San Diego was confirmed this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency announced today.


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STRONG LINK FOUND BETWEEN ZIKA VIRUS AND PARALYZING CONDITION

 

East County News Service

February 29, 2016 (San Diego) – Zika has recently been suspected of causing Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological disorder. It can leave patients partially paralyzed, sometimes permanently, also causing breathing problems in severe cases after the patient’s immune system attacks nerve cells, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Now results of a study published in the medical journal The Lancet confirm that nearly all of the blood samples from 42 Guillain-Barré patients in French Polynesia in the South Pacific two years ago also tested positive for Zika virus.


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ZIKA CASE CONFIRMED IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY IN PATIENT THAT TRAVELED TO COLUMBIA

 

Zika virus photo courtesy of the CDC.

 

County News Service

February 27, 2016 (San Diego) -- A San Diego resident who traveled to Colombia and returned in January 2016 is the first Zika virus case reported in the region this year, the County Health and Human Services Agency announced today.


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COULD MICROCEPHALY IN BRAZIL BE CAUSED BY A CHEMICAL IN DRINKING WATER, NOT ZIKA VIRUS?

 

By Miriam Raftery

February 17, 2016 (San Diego) —  Zika virus has been the main culprit suspected in thousands of cases of babies in Brazil born with microcephaly, a condition that causes small skulls and under-developed brains.  But now a group of doctors and researchers in Argentina have published a report suggesting another possible cause: the chemical Pyriproxyfen, a larvicide made by a Monsanto subsidiary that has been applied to drinking water supplies in Brazil to control mosquitoes.


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ZIKA VIRUS IN SALIVA, MAY BE SPREAD BY KISSING

 

East County News Service

February 5, 2016 (San Diego) — Medical researchers in Brazil have found Zika virus in saliva and urine of two patients. Dr. Paulo Gadelha, president of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil that found the viruses in these body fluids, urged that pregnant women or other visitors concerned about contracting the virus avoid kissing strangers at this week’s Carnival in Brazil.


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NEW GUIDELINES FOR BLOOD DONATIONS, SEX AFTER ZIKA EXPOSURE

 

East County News Service

February 3, 2016 (San Diego) – Recent evidence reveals troubling facts: Zika virus has been transmitted sexually and found in blood plasma.


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WHO DECLARES ZIKA EMERGENCY AS DISEASE SPREADS WORLDWIDE; ZIKA TRANSMITTED BY SEXUAL CONTACT IN U.S.

 

By Miriam Raftery

February 2, 2016 (San Diego) – The bad news about Zika Virus keeps getting worse.  Days after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global emergency over Zika Virus, a patient in Texas has contracted Zika via sexual contact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control confirms. Zika was initially thought to be spread only by mosquitos. 


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READER’S EDITORIAL: WOMEN’S LIVES AT RISK

By Maxine Johnson

January 30, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) — The “pro-life” movement ignores the lives of expectant mothers—and that’s both heartless and dangerous. Nobody should force their religious views onto a woman with a life-threatening pregnancy, or a woman who learns her child has an incurable, debilitating defect such as the thousands of women in Brazil who contracted Zika virus and gave birth to babies with severe brain damage.  In some Latin American countries, women have no choice even if they contract Zika in the first trimester – since abortion is illegal but the disease is rampant.  


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ZIKA VIRUS AND SAN DIEGO COUNTY: WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

Source: County News Service

January 29, 2016 (San Diego) -- It is everywhere in the news — the Zika virus. It’s a mosquito-driven virus new to the Americas that has been virtually harmless to most people but also linked to a serious birth defect. It’s prompted travel warnings to Mexico and several South American and Central American countries, as well as anxious questions from the media and the public.


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ZIKA IN U.S. AS CONCERNS SPREAD: VIRUS MAY BE LINKED TO RARE PARALYSIS AS WELL AS INFANT BRAIN DAMAGE

4 patients in Los Angeles, 1 in San Francisco undergoing testing for Zika virus

CDC broadens travel warning: pregnant women urged to avoid travel to over a dozen countries including Samoa, Mexico, parts of South and Central America (see map)

By Miriam Raftery

January 24, 2016 (San Diego’s East County) – Zika virus may be responsible for a rise in Guillain-Barre syndrome that can cause temporary paralysis, muscle weakness, and sometimes life-threatening breathing problems. In Brazil, 24 of 42 people diagnosed recently with Guillain-Barre, a normally rare condition, also tested positive for Zika virus, a mosquito-borne illness, ABC reports. World Health Organization has warned that a similar link is being found in other places including El Salvador and French Polynesia.


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CDC ISSUES WARNING DUE TO ZIKA VIRUS: PREGNANT WOMEN SHOULD AVOID TRAVEL TO MEXICO AND PARTS OF CARIBBEAN, SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA

“There’s a pandemic in progress.”-- Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institute of Health

East County News Service

January 15, 2016 (San Diego) – Zika virus has spread to at least 14 countries in the Western hemisphere as well as Puerto Rico. Tests have linked Zika virus to babies born with microcephaly, a birth defect that causes babies to be born with small skulls, brain damage and sometimes death. 

Today, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel warning urging pregnant women and women who may become pregnant to postpone travel to  Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Suriname, and Venezuela.


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SPREAD OF ZIKA VIRUS AND OTHER MOSQUITO-BORNE TROPICAL ILLNESSES WORRIES PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICIALS

 

 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left:  Centers for Disease Control

January 2, 2016 (San Diego)—Though threats of terror attacks have captured headlines, fast-spreading diseases carried by tiny mosquitoes may pose serious danger to far more people in the western hemisphere. These include Zika virus, Dengue Fever, Chikungunya, Yellow Fever, and West Nile Virus.

Before May 2015, Zika virus had occurred only in Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. But the virus has spread rapidly and has now been contracted in 13 countries or territories in the Americas. In Brazil, where over a million cases of Zika have occurred,  the virus has been linked to 3,000 babies born with brain damage known as microcephaly.  Ominously, new research now suggests Zika virus can now be sexually transmitted from a patient bitten by a mosquito carrying the virus to a partner.


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