As thousands of spring breakers traveled to beaches recently across the United States, the Caribbean, and farther south — and continue to, this week and next — a tiny insect continues to create a big buzz. The Aedes species of the mosquito is carrying the Zika virus.

Jake Smith (not his real name) left his home in Michigan recently for South Padre Island, Texas. The vacation hotspot isn’t actually in the Zika danger zone, but it is close. “I didn’t really know anything about it and didn’t have any issues,” Smith told LifeZette.

“I did hear about everything that had been going on,” said Alex Boucher, a freshman at Loyola University who spent her break recently in Jamaica. “But I decided since I wasn’t at high risk for the virus, I didn’t want to put off going on vacation when odds are everything would be fine.”

It’s the nonchalant attitude of many people that has health officials concerned we might see a spike in Zika cases as these students return.

Anyone traveling where the mosquitos are found is at risk. Most people with Zika don’t know they have it. Those who do may not know for weeks or months. Symptoms of the illness are mild and last about a week, according to the CDC. And there are an increasing number of infections diagnosed through sexual transmission. 

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British health officials reported that Zika was found in a man’s semen two months after he was infected, Fox News recently reported. The findings suggest the virus may linger long after infection symptoms fade.

To prevent the disease from making its way back home to the U.S., colleges and universities — such as the University of Central Florida, Penn State University and Central Michigan — have issued travel advisories to their students this spring.

But whether students and their families are paying attention is anyone’s guess.

Currently, there are 258 Zika cases in the United States. Of those, 18 of the victims are pregnant women and 6 cases were sexually transmitted.

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Dr. Antonio Crespo is an infectious disease specialist at Dr. P. Phillips Hospital in Orlando, Florida, where only 67 cases of the disease have been reported so far — and all are travel related. Dr. Crespo said the numbers are encouraging. “It’s not spreading as exponentially as maybe we predicted, based on what happened in other countries.”

Still, women who are pregnant or who are thinking about getting pregnant are advised to avoid “Zika hot zones,” as the disease continues to be linked to the serious birth defect known as microcephaly. These women are also advised to use protection if they are having sex.

“We decided not to take our spring break cruise to the Caribbean due to my pregnancy,” said Morgan Walls of Moore, Oklahoma. “When I first learned of my pregnancy I had not heard about the Zika scare. I soon learned that due to the risk of possible birth defects that came from Zika, and having a high risk pregnancy, travel was not going to happen.”

While scientists are working to understand the virus, its transmission, and the effect on those infected, researchers at Florida State University believe they have made an important breakthrough.

Dr. Hengli Tang, along with researchers from three other labs, found that the Zika virus efficiently infects human cortical neural stem cells and slows their growth.

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“Our study answered one of the critical questions regarding the potential link between the Zika virus infection and brain defects in the fetuses of infected mothers,” said Dr. Tang. “Can the virus directly infect these cells to cause the defect? The answer is yes, the virus can. It doesn’t yet prove that it is doing it this way in patients, but our research shows that the virus has the capacity to do these damages.”

The new discovery could help with the creation of a vaccine — indirectly, by providing a model to study the virus and biological insights to Zika virus infection properties. As Dr. Tang noted, “Our study adds an important piece to the puzzle, but much more needs to be done.”

Experts believe the upcoming summer season in the United States could mean more cases — the Aedes mosquito has been found in some parts of the United States.

The bottom line, as Dr. Crespo emphasizes: “I don’t think we need to panic, I don’t think people need to be overly concerned. I think we just have to be aware at this point.”

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