Zika Virus Awareness: Unseen symptoms

Symptoms of the Zika virus appear to be mild, with the most common being fever, rash, joint pain and conjunctivitis or red eyes.

According to the CDC, most people infected won’t even know they have disease because they won’t have any symptoms.

Experts recommend seeing a healthcare provider if you are pregnant and experienced these symptoms within two weeks after traveling to a place where Zika has been reported.

In early April, the CDC said the virus was quote scarier than they originally thought.

Researchers just recently made the direct link to the mosquito-borne virus to a birth defect in babies called microcephaly. It’s a condition where infants are born with much smaller than average heads.

“The evidence several months ago, it was suggestive,” Says Dr. James Cockey of the Wicomico County Health Department. “Now it seems pretty clear cut that there’s cause and effect, and we want to do all we can to prevent that horrendous outcome.”

This week marks Zika Awareness week for the state of Maryland. We’ll wrap up our series of reports Friday night, where we’ll discuss approaches to vaccines researchers are currently working on.