A young man in his early 20s from Mason Country was is the first person in Washington having Zika virus. In the washington State Department of Health said that he probably had virus during his travel to the South Pacific. The fact that the man had this virus was confirmed by the doctors on Monday.
A lot of people travel to the countries where Zika is detected and spreading. Dr. Scott Lindquist, the epidemiologist, studying different communicable diseases in the Department of Health, says that they are expecting the virus spreading around the world. The fact that Zika virus is dangerous for pregnant women and their unborn children, make the virus a huge problem. But according to the scientists’ data, there’s a good thing is that the virus is spread by the mosquitos that don’t live in Washington state. That means that the wide spread of the virus in this area is unlikely.
One of the most dangerous features of the virus is that it has mild illness. Two out of ten people having virus show the symptoms, while 1 in 5 will have the mildest symptoms, similar to the symptoms of flu or cold. The symptomps include joint pain, fever, red eyes. That condition lasts for a few days and is easy to confuse it with cold.
The health department says that they received some reports about the increase of number of cases when children are born with microcephaly and other pathologies, connected with pregnancy related outcomes. So these cases are associated with the effects, that the virus causes if the woman is infected by it during the pregnancy.
If a child has microcephaly, the head becomes smaller. It leads to different problems with the health, including speech functions , problems with coordination, brain disorders and hyperactivity so as other neurological disorders.
The vaccine preventing the virus, doesn’t exist. The department also says that they don’t have treatment and medial help for those who were infected.
The officials say that it is necessary to shorten the number of voyages to the countries where the virus is circulating and to increase the protection from insects, especially mosquitoes. It is necessary for all the pregnant women to delay all the travels to those regions and countries. The mosquito bite prevention should be taken seriously if the voyage must be taken to the states where the virus is circulating.
The travelers should be concerned about the virus, especially at Sea-Tac International Airport.
“ So when the virus appeared in Washington, it should be taken seriously and people should understand that it is scary”, said Nancy Chapin. She added, that she hoped if the scientists found out the way of defeating the virus and finally the people would find the truth about it.
Paul Nelson said that they had seen that before with Ebola virus and other similar viruses, spreading outside the USA at first and than appearing in the country. According to his words, it is needed to create a plan for monitoring the symptoms of the virus.
Dr. Jeff Duchin, an epidemiologist, is sure that it is not necessary to alarm people about contacting with those, infected by Zika. He said that the travelers who had returned from the countries where the virus was spread, didn’t present risks for community because it didn’t spread from one person to another. The virus is tracked by The Washington State Department of Health and all the news and results of the recent researches are published and updated on the webpage of Zika.
