CBC: Zika virus risk low but spooks Manitoba travellers
January 29, 2016 —
Brazil’s Ministry of Health recently drew a connection between women infected with Zika during pregnancy and microcephaly or an underdeveloped brain in their babies.
The normal rate of reported microcephaly in Brazil is about five per 100,000 live births and considered “quite rare,” said Dr. Joel Kettner, medical director of the International Centre for Infectious Diseases and associate professor at the University of Manitoba.
Among the general population, the risk of getting seriously ill from the Zika virus is also very low, said Kettner.
About 80 per cent of the time, people who contract the virus don’t experience any symptoms and for the 20 per cent who do, they fight it off within a week, he said.