Panama named in US health alert

PREGNANT women should avoid travel to Panama and other Latin America and the Caribbean countries  that have a tropical disease epidemic linked to birth defects, US health officials warned on Friday, January 15.

The disease is caused by the Zika virus, which is spread by the bite of a mosquito.

Three cases have recently been detected  in Panama. It  causes only mild discomfort in most people, but has been spreading around the world, and  there is growing evidence that the disease is linked with terrible birth defects, especially in Brazil

United States health officials noted that pregnant women should consider postponing travel to 14 destinations: Panama, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, French Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Suriname and Venezuela.
They also warned that women who are trying to become pregnant or thinking about it speak to their r doctor before traveling to these areas, and take extra precautions to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes.
Zika is the name of a virus found in a monkey in the Zika forest in Uganda in 1947. It is native to tropical Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, but there  are newly emerging infections in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is spread through the bite of the same type of mosquitoes that can spread to other tropical diseases such as chikungunya fever and dengue fever.
Zika symptoms are  fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes, which usually lasts no more than a week. There is no medicine or vaccine against the disease?
Current concerns are because  there is growing evidence linking Zika infection in pregnant women with a rare condition called microcephaly, in which the head is smaller than normal and the brain does not develop properly.
Health officials in the United States will go to Brazil, where there has been a recent increase in birth defect, to study the existing risk to pregnant women. They have reported more than 3,500 cases in Brazil since October.

Infections are occurring in Mexico and the  type of mosquito that can carry the virus is also found along the southern US border.
Experts believe it is likely that it  could end up spreading the virus on US soil,?

At least 26 Americans have been diagnosed with Zika since 2007; all travelers believed to have  contracted the virus  abroad. A person in Puerto Rico who had not traveled was diagnosed with the disease last month.