Zika information forum to be held at Franconia Government Center

(Centers for Disease Control picture)

The Fairfax County Health Department will be holding a Zika information session July 23 at the Franconia Governmental Center. The meeting, which will run from 10 a.m. to noon, is open to the public and will be hosted by the Lee District Association of Civic Organizations.

There have been 33 cases of Zika virus reported in Virginia as of last week, with 21 of those in Northern Virginia, according the Virginia Department of Health. The state does not provide county-by-county statistics.

Zika is primarily spread via mosquito bites. Men can also spread the virus sexually, and pregnant women can transfer Zika to fetuses. This is where fears about the virus are the greatest, with microcephaly (an abnormally small head) and severe birth defects possible in babies born with Zika.

Nationwide, there’s been a total of 1,133 cases of Zika reported; 320 of those involve pregnant women, according to the CDC.

There is no vaccine for Zika, nor is there a medicine for treating it. Most people who contract Zika won’t show any symptoms or will only exhibit minor symptoms such as fever, rash, joint pain, or conjunctivitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Symptoms generally last a few days to a week.

To date, none of the cases of Zika in the United States have been contracted locally, according to the CDC. That means nobody in the U.S. acquired the virus through a mosquito bite while in the country. However, there have been more than 2,500 cases of locally acquired Zika in U.S. territories, with the majority those being in Puerto Rico.

For more information on Zika, visit Fairfax County’s page and the Centers for Disease Control page.