Mosquito-borne illness sparks travel advisory

The Zika virus is the suspected cause of babies being born with small heads

The Georgia Department of Public Health is urging travelers — especially those who are pregnant — to take precautions against the Zika virus if they are headed to Central and South America

Zika is carried by the Aedes mosquito. Most often, the virus does little more than produce a fever, rash, joint pain and redness in the eyes. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says the illness is usually mild with symptoms that last about a week and that the need for hospitalization is “uncommon.”

But Zika seems to be producing more dramatic effects on this side of the world. In Brazil, more than 4,000 babies have been born with microcephaly, or unusually small heads. And Zika is the prime suspect.

Target areas include Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, Venezuela, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, among others, according to the CDC.

No locally transmitted Zika cases have been reported in Georgia or anywhere in the United States, but cases have been reported in return- ing travelers.

The virus is not spread human to human.

Currently, there is no vaccine to prevent or medicine to treat Zika.

“It is extremely important that individuals who have traveled to countries where there are on-going Zika virus outbreaks keep guard against additional mosquito bites,” said Cherie Drenzek, state epidemiologist for DPH. “During the first week or so of infection, Zika virus can be passed from an infected person to another mosquito through mosquito bites. An infected mosquito can then transmit the virus to other people.”

The mosquitos breed in containers so removing them or dumping out standing water at least once a week, or using larvicides such as mosquito dunks or mosquito torpedoes in water that cannot be dumped out, will reduce the number of these mosquitoes.