OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) – The potential for a public health crisis looms as spring and summer travel season picks up. Thousands of Americans will head to tropical destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean, where mosquitoes have spread Zika virus rapidly. The spread has been so widespread and rapid the World Health Organization has declared it an emergency.
“We've got to get the public health laboratories up and running and get a commercial kit out there that other labs can use as well,” said Dr. Peter Iwen, Director of the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory at University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
There isn't a ready-made kit to test for Zika. Currently, CDC labs are developing a test at its labs that must be able to be re-created at trusted public health labs.
Iwen and his staff are helping the Centers for Disease Control finalize a process to test a patient’s blood specifically for Zika virus. The faster the better, he says, because government labs are swamped with cases.
“To get results back from the CDC can take days or weeks,” Iwen explains, “It is not very good for patient care when you have to wait so long."
That backlog could get worse in the coming weeks and months as people travel for spring break and summer vacation. Omaha travel agent Laura Dennis says many of her clients are not canceling their trip to the tropics. She says Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula continues to be a popular destination.
Zika virus isn't fatal, but can cause birth defects. Health officials warn couples expecting a child, or planning to become pregnant to cancel to cancel or delay plans to travel to affected areas.
Which means honeymooners are looking elsewhere, “I do think you're going to have some people who aren't even calling in to ask for those destinations, because of their concern,” Dennis said.
There have not been any reports of new cases of Zika in Douglas County since February when local health officials announced two women were diagnosed with the virus after returning from affected countries.
