CDC ISSUES TRAVEL ADVISORY FOR BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS

From Reuters
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel advisory on Wednesday warning pregnant women to consider postponing travel to Brownsville, Texas, because of the risk of contracting Zika.

The advisory, issued through CDC’s Health Alert Network, follows reports of infections in five people living in the Brownsville area who have contracted Zika through local mosquitoes, suggesting an ongoing risk of Zika infection.

“We are working closely with Texas to gather and analyze new information every day,” CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said in a statement.
Frieden said Zika appeared to have been spreading in the Brownsville area “for at least several weeks,” which prompted the agency to issue the warning and urge pregnant women who live and work in the area to take steps to prevent mosquito bites.

Texas is one of several U.S. states where Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which carry Zika, are present. It is the second state within the continental United States after Florida to report local transmission of the virus that has been linked to birth defects.

The CDC said there was currently no evidence of widespread transmission of Zika, but temperatures are still warm enough in the Brownsville area – located near the Mexico border – to support mosquito-borne transmission of the virus, which has been shown to cause birth defects.

To read the rest of the story, click on link: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/cdc-issues-travel-advisory-for-brownsville-texas-over-zika/