Zika Virus Spreading

© Felipe Dana/AP

Zika Virus Cases Appearing in U.S. - Zika virus has begun cropping up in the U.S., public health officials say, with three new confirmed cases in Florida and two others in Illinois.
Texas and Hawaii have also reported cases, including one linked to a baby born in Oahu with microcephaly, a condition involving a malformed skull and brain. The Hawaiian newborn was the first in the U.S. to be born with the Zika-associated congenital defect, cases of which have exploded in Brazil since May. More than 3,500 cases of microcephaly have been reported in the South American country, and 46 babies have died.

"The mother likely had Zika infection when she was residing in Brazil in May 2015 and her newborn acquired the infection in the womb. Neither the baby nor the mother are infectious, and there was never a risk of transmission in Hawaii," Hawaii health officials said in statement.

All of those diagnosed with Zika in the U.S. were reportedly infected in countries overseas where Zika has begun circulating, health officials say. Two of the Florida cases occurred in Miami-Dade County residents who traveled to Colombia in December; the third case is a resident from the Tampa-St. Petersburg area who traveled to Venezuela in December. Blood tests were confirmed by the state public health laboratory in Tampa.

No official tally of U.S. cases is available, U.S. health officials say. So far, they say, there is no evidence that the virus has begun to spread locally in the U.S.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a yellow travel alert late Friday , advising pregnant women to consider postponing travel to Mexico, Puerto Rico and more than a dozen other countries in South America, Central America and the Caribbean where the mosquito-borne Zika virus is circulating. The agency warned all travelers to these areas to take precautions to avoid mosquito bites.

The case in Hawaii caused particular concern because it occurred on the heels of an outbreak in the state of dengue fever. The viral disease can be transmitted from person to person by the aedes aegypti mosquito, which is a scenario that could easily be repeated with Zika virus. So far, Hawaiian health officials have confirmed 224 cases of dengue, which can cause sudden high fever, rash, headaches and sometimes excruciating joint pain.

The aedes aegypti mosquito is common in warm climates, including Southeast Asia, Africa, South America, Central America the Caribbean and the Southeast U.S.