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Zika Virus – March 8, 2016 Texas has had 18 confirmed cases of Zika virus disease. 17 were in travelers who were infected abroad and diagnosed after they returned home. One case involved a Dallas County resident who had sexual contact with someone who acquired the Zika infection while traveling abroad. Case counts by county: Bexar – 3Dallas – 2Fort Bend – 1Harris – 9Tarrant – 1Travis - 2

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Norristown, PA (March 8, 2016) – The Montgomery County Health Department (MCHD) today announced confirmation of the first case of Zika virus in the county. A 55-year-old woman tested positive for the virus, following travel outside of the United States to an area where Zika virus has been found. There are now six confirmed cases of Zika virus in Pennsylvania, according to the state Department of Health. “The Zika virus is generally a mild virus that lasts less than a week,” said Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh, who is also a physician and is Interim Medical Director of the Montgomery County Health Department. “The CDC, the state health department, and our county health department are fully prepared for cases of Zika virus, which is important to note, cannot be transmitted through casual contact. We want to strongly encourage our residents to focus on mosquito bite prevention, if they travel to countries that are affected by the ongoing outbreak. It is also important to talk with your healthcare provider about travel if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant.” Zika virus is a generally mild illness that is spread primarily through the bite of an infected mosquito. Common symptoms of Zika virus disease are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes), lasting from several days to one week. Spread of the virus through blood transfusion and sexual contact has also been reported. The virus cannot be transmitted through casual contact. The current Zika virus outbreak began in May 2015 in Brazil, leading to reports of Guillain-Barré syndrome and pregnant women giving birth to babies with birth defects and poor pregnancy outcomes. The outbreak has spread to numerous countries and areas, prompting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to issue travel notices to regions where the Zika virus transmission is ongoing. The first case of Zika virus disease contracted in the U.S. occurred in Texas, and involved an individual who had sexual contact with someone who acquired the Zika infection while traveling abroad. Other confirmed cases of the illness in the U.S. have occurred in individuals who had traveled to areas affected by the Zika outbreak. For more information, please visit the MCHD Zika Virus webpage: http://www.montcopa.org/index.aspx?nid=2324.

BY PHILLYVOICE STAFF A Montgomery County woman has tested positive for the Zika virus, the first such case in the county. The woman, 55, contracted the virus after traveling outside of the United States to an area where Zika has been found. There are now six confirmed cases of Zika virus in Pennsylvania, according to the state Department of Health. “The Zika virus is generally a mild virus that lasts less than a week,” said Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh, a physician and interim medical director of the county health department. “The CDC, the state health department, and our county health department are fully prepared for cases of Zika virus, which is important to note, cannot be transmitted through casual contact. We want to strongly encourage our residents to focus on mosquito bite prevention, if they travel to countries that are affected by the ongoing outbreak. It is also important to talk with your healthcare provider about travel if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant.” Zika virus is a generally mild illness that is spread primarily through the bite of an infected mosquito. Common symptoms of Zika virus disease are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes), lasting from several days to one week. Spread of the virus through blood transfusion and sexual contact has also been reported. For more information, please visit the Montgomery County Health Department Zika virus webpage. http://www.phillyvoice.com/montgomery-county-confirms-first-zika-virus-case/

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20 Canadians, including pregnant woman, infected by Zika in other countriesRisk of contracting virus through blood products in Canada estimated at 1 in 38 millionBy Hannah Thibedeau, CBC News Posted: Mar 07, 2016 8:58 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 07, 2016 8:58 PM ET Aedes aegypti, the species of mosquito that carries Zika virus. There are now 20 confirmed cases of the Zika virus in Canada, including one pregnant woman. (US Centers for Disease Control) 59 shares Facebook Twitter Reddit Google Share Email Related StoriesZika virus: What you need to know and how to prevent itZika virus: Canadian women advised to wait 2 months to get pregnant after travelZika virus: Canadian women advised to wait 2 months to get pregnant after travelZika outbreak ahead of Rio Olympics concerns some athletes planning familiesZika response weighs evidence of birth defect linkZika virus risks in pregnancy may be 'more than microcephaly'Twenty Canadians, including a pregnant woman, have tested positive for the Zika virus, Canada's chief public health officer told a Commons committee Monday. "We are aware of one [pregnant woman] in Canada at this time. There may be more but we're not aware of that," Dr. Gregory Taylor, told the standing committee on health. Zika virus: What you need to knowWomen advised to wait 2 months to get pregnant after travelZika outbreak ahead of Rio Olympics concerns some athletes Taylor would not identify where the pregnant woman is from, in order to protect her privacy. All 20 contracted the virus while visiting countries with outbreaks. There are no known instances of Canadians being infected while in Canada. The Zika virus is thought to cause microcephaly in newborns, which is an abnormal head size associated with incomplete brain development. The Public Health Agency has told women to wait two months before getting pregnant after visiting Zika-affected countries. Approximately three million Canadians are expected to travel to Zika-affected countries in 2016, and Taylor says the number of infected people is expected to increase. However, he tells Canadians not to worry. "Most of them have either no symptoms or very, very mild," Taylor said. Blood securityThe CEO of Canadian Blood Services told the committee that the virus can be transmitted through blood products, and the agency can't screen for it. "There is no licensed screening test that we can put in the blood system today for Zika virus. Unlike tests that we have for West Nile and HIV and hepatitis B and hepatitis C, there is no screening test we can routinely do on blood donors," Graham Sher said. Sher says the agency took rapid measures to protect the blood supply. Anyone who has travelled to a country with Zika must wait 21 days after returning to Canada before donating blood. Sher says, "The risk of a unit of blood being infected by the Zika virus and entering the blood supply in Canada with our 21-day deferral policy in place is 1 in 38 million." http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/pregnant-woman-zika-canadian-virus-1.3480331

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Sixth case of Zika in Pa. confirmedMarch 7, 2016 3:33 PM Pittsburgh Post-GazetteThe Pennsylvania Department of Health today announced an additional confirmed case of Zika virus disease, raising the number of cases in the state to six. In its weekly update on the disease, the state said there are 211 other patients awaiting test results. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention processes Zika blood tests for patients nationwide. It can take up to two weeks from the time of a blood drawing for test results to emerge. http://www.post-gazette.com/news/health/2016/03/07/Sixth-case-of-Zika-in-Pa-confirmed/stories/201603070132

Dept. Of Health Confirms 6 Cases Of Zika Virus In Pa.March 7, 2016 8:37 PMFiled Under: CDC, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Department of Health, Zika Virus 10PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — The number of Zika virus cases in Pennsylvania continues to rise for the third week in a row. According to the state Department of Health, there are now six confirmed cases of the virus in Pennsylvania. They also say that more than 200 test results are still pending. The CDC has been flooded with requests for Zika tests, and there is a one-month waiting period to get the results. The virus typically leaves the body after a week. Join The Conversation On The KDKA Facebook Page Stay Up To Date, Follow KDKA On Twitter Last week, the Allegheny County Health Department made Zika concerns the main topic at their Board of Health meeting. They said their main concern is for people who have been traveling. http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2016/03/07/dept-of-health-confirms-6-cases-of-zika-virus-in-pa/

Zika Virus InformationAs of March 7, 2016 there are no confirmed cases of Zika virus in South Carolina.

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http://www.healthycanadians.gc.ca/diseases-conditions-maladies-affections/disease-maladie/zika-virus/surveillance-eng.php?id=zikacases#s1 Zika virus cases in Canada, as of March 7, 2016 CountryLocally acquiredTravel-relatedCanada020

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There have been 5 lab-confirmed cases of Zika in Alberta, 4 in 2016 and 1 in 2013.All cases were acquired due to travel.http://www.health.alberta.ca/health-info/zika-virus.html

There is a risk to Albertans of contracting Zika virus if they travel to countries where Zika virus circulates. There have been 5 lab-confirmed cases of Zika in Alberta, 4 in 2016 and 1 in 2013.All cases were acquired due to travel.

Zika virus cases in Canada, as of March 7, 2016CountryLocally acquiredTravel-relatedCanada020

Tonight at 11 PM ET Dr. Henry L. Niman, PhDZika Exploding

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Zika has pregnant women in the U.S. worried, and doctors have few answersThe Zika virus has been linked to severe birth defects, including microcephaly, since it surfaced in Brazil about a year ago. Lena H. Sun and Brady DennisThe Washington Post The pregnant woman was in her 30s and, like a growing number of patients at Richard Newman's practice in downtown Washington, worried about a threat the obstetrician himself had learned about only recently: Zika. In December, during her first trimester, she'd taken a vacation to Central America. Weeks later, U.S. officials began warning pregnant women about traveling to regions where the virus was spreading rapidly. She'd gotten a mosquito bite, followed by a rash, fever and joint pain -- all potential symptoms of infection. Newman recommended she see a specialist at Sibley Memorial Hospital and encouraged her to have her blood tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He'd already done the same for more than a dozen anxious patients in 2016, and each time the results were negative. Being Pregnant Patient No. 1 for Zika in ChicagoThis time, the test came back positive. Promoted stories from PoliticsChatter.com Top quotes from the Democratic debateWhy does Bernie Sanders struggle with the black vote?These Republicans are not fans of Donald Trump "We'll obviously have to watch you very closely," Newman told the woman, knowing he'd never encountered a case with such risks in his long career. Across the country, obstetricians and specialists in high-risk pregnancies are fielding similar concerns and more because of Zika. Patients are alarmed given recent trips to the countries with growing outbreaks in the Caribbean and Latin America. They want reassurance that they're not infected, that their babies will be safe from the potentially devastating birth defects associated with the virus. Some are even putting fertility treatments on hold. There's only so much their doctors can tell them since so much about Zika remains unknown. The virus is spread primarily through mosquitoes -- but sexual transmission is also possible and more common than once thought. Detecting an infection can be tricky because as many as 80 percent of people never show symptoms -- but one of the most serious may be a rare paralysis. Studies add more evidence of Zika's risk to pregnant womenYet pregnant women face the most devastating consequences because of the danger Zika seems to pose to a developing fetus. Many physicians say that they're struggling, often for the first time in their careers, to advise patients on what to do. Two studies released Friday could further rachet up the worries. Although scientists have yet to determine precisely how the virus is linked to microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and often have severe brain damage, a team of U.S. researchers has discovered how the virus selectively infects cells forming the brain's outer layer. Once it does, the cells are more likely to die and less likely to make new brain cells. And in Brazil, researchers tracking dozens of infected pregnant women found "grave" fetal complications and birth defects in nearly a third of cases. At a recent workshop held by the National Academy of Sciences, a leading obstetrician described the kinds of questions she and other doctors have been getting: If a pregnant woman becomes infected, how likely are birth defects for her baby? How do the risks differ by trimester? How often should ultrasounds be performed to look for abnormalities? Timeline: Zika virus outbreak"A lot of these questions are unanswerable right now," Newman said. "In most of the things I do, I have 35 years of experience. I've seen it all. I know what to expect, and I can give really good advice. The scariest part for us is that nobody has had any experience with this." In Florida, where the warm, humid climate is ideal for the mosquitoes that transmit the virus, anxiety among pregnant women has been palpable. The state already has declared a public health emergency in 11 counties because of Zika. "Because we are so far south, we seem to have more patients traveling to or from these countries than other places in the U.S.," said Loraine Endres, who works at a Fort Myers practice that counsels high-risk pregnant women. "Truthfully, this is one of the most difficult things we have had to deal with just because there's so much uncertainty." One of her patients, Nina Burt, was 13 weeks pregnant when she visited family in Brazil over Thanksgiving. She got a mosquito bite while there but never saw a rash or any of the other minor telltale symptoms. After the CDC broadened its testing recommendations to include pregnant women without any signs of infection, Burt quickly responded. She's won't know those test results for several more weeks. Zika virus in Illinois: 5 cases, all travel-relatedSo far, ultrasounds show that the baby is developing normally. The 38-year-old mother of two remains cautious but optimistic as her late-May due date approaches. "The unknown is kind of stressful, [but] it's in God's hands," Burt said. Laura Riley, director of labor and delivery at Massachusetts General Hospital, is relying on the CDC's guidance and her own knowledge of congenital viruses. But she still finds herself unable to counsel women as she'd like to do. About 50 patients in her practice may have been exposed during holiday travel in the Americas. Five have shown symptoms of the virus. "You can imagine, I'm sitting in a small room with a couple that wants answers," Riley said. Even if a Zika test comes back negative, she's not sure at what point it is "truly negative" so she can say with confidence that a patient is in the clear. Study finds first evidence that Zika may cause temporary paralysis"Pregnant women go to their doctors and hope their doctors can do a test and make it all better," Riley said. "This is one of those situations where you just don't have enough information to do that." The CDC is establishing a registry of pregnant women who may be at risk for Zika infections. Of nine pregnant Americans with confirmed infections, at least two recently chose to have abortions, two suffered miscarriages, and one gave birth to an infant with serious birth defects. Two others delivered healthy infants, and two are still pregnant. At MedStar Washington Hospital Center in the District, Jennifer Ballard has been following about a dozen patients potentially exposed to Zika during recent trips. Two did contract the virus and either gave birth or terminated the pregnancy, she said, declining to provide specifics. The rest are still awaiting test results. "It's really hard to be in a place to reassure your patients when you don't have information to feel reassured yourself," Ballard acknowledged. "We don't know if, just because we can't see microcephaly, that it doesn't mean there's not something else that could be a problem." First Chicago Zika case confirmedAmi Levy, 35, had vacationed in Argentina in late December. She and her husband spent time in Buenos Aires but also visited Igazu Falls, a popular tourist spot that straddles the Brazilian border. There, she got a bug bite on her arm, followed by a rash, and her eyes became red. The symptoms soon subsided, and she didn't think much more about them. "No one was talking about Zika. It wasn't on my radar," she said. Only later, after she returned home to Washington and discovered she was pregnant, did she began to fret. On Jan. 15, Levy flew to Puerto Rico for a long-planned trip with her sister and aunt. Her husband called a few hours later. The CDC had just issued an alert urging pregnant woman to consider postponing travel to 14 countries and territories -- including Puerto Rico. The couple agreed she should catch the next possible flight home. She did, but not before finding multiple mosquito bites on her leg. Concerned about the two possible exposures, Levy soon saw her doctor and sent a blood sample to the CDC. Two tense weeks passed. Finally, word arrived that she had tested negative. "I felt very lucky," said Levy, a psychotherapist. "We could breathe a little bit and get excited about the baby, about our family." CDC ships Zika test for pregnant women; Puerto Rico at riskThe outcome was different for the expectant mother at Newman's practice. Everything looked fine on the sonogram he'd ordered when she was 16 weeks along. But the image a month later showed distinct abnormalities with "very little brain development," Newman said. A fetal MRI confirmed severe brain atrophy, and analysis of the woman's amniotic fluid detected the presence of Zika. Newman told his patient that the results suggested her child, if carried to term, might not survive long and almost certainly would have "no chance for a normal quality of life." Last month, after the final tests results came in, the woman called and told him she planned to terminate the pregnancy. "I just listened and sympathized," he said. "I can only imagine how hard this was for her. ... It was one of the saddest moments of my medical career."

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center in the District, Jennifer Ballard has been following about a dozen patients potentially exposed to Zika during recent trips. Two did contract the virus and either gave birth or terminated the pregnancy, she said, declining to provide specifics. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-zika-virus-pregnant-women-20160307-story.html

Media reports suggests that there have been three Zika confirmed pregnant cases in the District of Columbia.

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