as many as 1.5 million Brazilians may
have been infected with the
mosquito-borne Zika virus and now the US
and other countries are also reporting
new cases but what is the Zika virus
it's a tropical disease that spread to
people through mosquito bites about one
in five people who are infected will
develop symptoms like a fever rash or
red eyes it's usually a mild disease and
rarely requires hospitalization but it
does pose a threat to pregnant women so
why is it considered dangerous to
pregnant women zika virus appears to
have a particular ability to cause a
birth defects when the baby is born to a
mother that was infected during
pregnancy the birth defect called
microcephaly causes babies to be born
with undersized brains and skulls a
condition that can lead to serious
development problems Brazil has the
largest outbreak of Zika ever recorded
its Health Ministry has reported at
least 3,800 suspected cases of Zika
related microcephaly since October 2015
the CDC has warned pregnant women to
avoid travel to at least 22 destinations
most in Latin America and the Caribbean
a Zika likely to spread though a handful
of cases have been reported in the u.s.
health officials say that doesn't mean
Zika is starting to spread the mosquito
population is lower in the winter and
those that spread the virus are
concentrated in the southern US in
Hawaii the US cases so far are people
who were infected with the virus in a
country where Zika is circulating how
can you protect yourself from Zika there
is no vaccine or medication to treat the
virus but when traveling to countries
where the Zika virus has been reported
use insect repellant wear long sleeves
and pants and stay in places that have
window indoor screens