Doctor calls for more Zika info in Venezuela
A health expert is expressing concern about the lack of information on the Zika virus provided by authorities in Venezuela and is urging the government of President Nicolas Maduro to starting a national prevention campaign.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The latest on the fight against the Zika virus that health officials suspect is linked to a wave of birth defects in Brazil.
A health expert is expressing concern about the lack of information on the Zika virus provided by authorities in Venezuela and is urging the government of President Nicolas Maduro to starting a national prevention campaign.
Dr. Jose Felix Oletta, a former health minister and member of the non-governmental Organization to Defend National Epidemiology, said the Zika virus is "now a public menace" even though there are no official statistics on it.
Since January 2015, Venezuela's Ministry of Health has not published the once-weekly official report on endemic and epidemic diseases in the country, sparking concern among doctors.
Obama met with public health and national security officials about the mosquito-borne virus on Tuesday in the Situation Room.
The White House says Obama was briefed on steps being taken to protect Americans and factors that could cause the virus to spread in the U.S. Officials also updated the president on how the virus' spread in the hemisphere could affect the economy and development.
Health officials suspect Zika is linked to a wave of birth defects in Brazil in which babies have small heads.
U.S. officials have recommended pregnant women consider postponing trips to areas in the Caribbean and South America affected by Zika virus disease outbreaks.
Health officials suspect Zika is linked to a wave of birth defects in Brazil in which babies have small heads.
U.S. health officials have again expanded their travel alert to pregnant women about trips to the Caribbean and Latin America.
Israel Cedeno, a Health Ministry expert, said that authorities are going house-to-house explaining how to prevent transmission but that it's running up against cultural barriers and the lack of family planning among the Guna tribe.
The department says that the person has a mild case of Zika, which is spread by mosquitoes and is suspected of causing a spate of birth defects in Brazil.
Brazilian officials have linked the virus with a rare birth defect, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have urged pregnant women to consider postponing flights to areas where the virus is prevalent.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged pregnant women to consider postponing visits to 22 destinations because of concern that the mosquito-borne virus could be linked to a wave in Brazil of microcephaly cases in which children are born with heads that are smaller than normal and often have developmental problems.
U.S. health officials are putting out advice to doctors on testing newborns for Zika virus, a tropical infection linked to a wave of birth defects in Brazil.
Santa Fe Health Department official Andrea Uboldi tells La Red radio that the man is in the city of Rosario and had recently visited Brazil, where hundreds of thousands of cases of Zika are suspected and authorities are investigating a possible link to birth defects.
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