An infection prevention specialist at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center says the Zika virus doesn't pose much threat to Wyoming residents right now other than for pregnant women who may travel to Central or South America.

Erica Hanson says the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued a travel advisory urging pregnant women to avoid visiting countries where the virus has been found.

That includes parts of Mexico as well as the Dominican Republic and other nations stretching south into South America, including Brazil, Bolivia and Columbia among others.

There are long-term concerns among some health organizations that the virus could eventually spread throughout the United States and Canada.

There is no vaccination to combat the virus, according to Hanson. The disease is carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, and has been associated with serious birth defects. The most common problem is microcephaly, which is a condition in which babies are often born with unusually small heads and neurological damage, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO website says that while the virus has not been absolutely proven to cause microcephaly, it is strongly suspected. There has been an upswing in such birth defects in Brazil that seems to coincide with the virus.

Hanson says the disease is not especially serious for most other people and often mimics a mild case of the flu or causes no noticeable symptoms at all.

But because the virus presents such a threat to pregnant women and is rapidly expanding, its territory the World Health Organization has called an emergency meeting for Monday, according to the WHO website.

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