Pathfinder
Editor, Senior Moderator
By EMILY SCHULTHEIS FACE THE NATION April 17, 2016, 12:49 PM
NIH doctor explains U.S efforts to combat Zika virus
Despite growing concerns over the spread of the Zika virus abroad, the National Institutes of Health's Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday there is no cause for alarm about its spread in the United States and explained health officials' efforts --but added that women traveling abroad need to take travel warnings very seriously.
Fauci said thus far its presence United States has been confined to more than 350 "travel-related cases," or cases picked up in countries with active Zika virus. His comments, in an interview for CBS' "Face the Nation," come days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that the virus causes birth defects.
He cautioned that the next step is "local transmitted cases," which is when clusters of new cases crop up among people who haven't traveled to Zika-affected countries.
"The reason we think that is going to happen is because infections that are quite similar to Zika, like dengue and chikungunya, which are transmitted by exactly the same mosquito and have been in the Caribbean, South America for awhile, we have seen in the past little clusters of local transmitted cases within the country," he said. "The critical issue is that, in the past, we have successfully prevented it from becoming sustained and disseminated. And that's what we have to be prepared to do when we do get those locally transmitted cases in the United States."
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Full text and video:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nih-doctor-explains-u-s-efforts-to-combat-zika-virus/
NIH doctor explains U.S efforts to combat Zika virus
Despite growing concerns over the spread of the Zika virus abroad, the National Institutes of Health's Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday there is no cause for alarm about its spread in the United States and explained health officials' efforts --but added that women traveling abroad need to take travel warnings very seriously.
Fauci said thus far its presence United States has been confined to more than 350 "travel-related cases," or cases picked up in countries with active Zika virus. His comments, in an interview for CBS' "Face the Nation," come days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that the virus causes birth defects.
He cautioned that the next step is "local transmitted cases," which is when clusters of new cases crop up among people who haven't traveled to Zika-affected countries.
"The reason we think that is going to happen is because infections that are quite similar to Zika, like dengue and chikungunya, which are transmitted by exactly the same mosquito and have been in the Caribbean, South America for awhile, we have seen in the past little clusters of local transmitted cases within the country," he said. "The critical issue is that, in the past, we have successfully prevented it from becoming sustained and disseminated. And that's what we have to be prepared to do when we do get those locally transmitted cases in the United States."
...
Full text and video:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nih-doctor-explains-u-s-efforts-to-combat-zika-virus/