Mainland Chile confirms first three cases of Zika virus

“The patient was infected with the virus after having sexual contact with an ill individual who returned from a country where Zika virus is present”. Scientists are studying whether there is a causal link between Zika and these two disorders.

In babies born with this condition, it can cause developmental delays, seizures, or problems with speaking, sitting, walking, balance, feeding, hearing, and vision, according to the CDC.

An epidemiologist said the Sooner state will see the virus, it is just a matter of when Oklahoma sees its first case.

Jaques Wagner, the chief of staff for Brazil president Dilma Rousseff, said Monday there was no risk to athletes unless “they are pregnant women”.

It’s the first case of the virus being transmitted in the US during the current outbreak of Zika, which has been linked to birth defects in the Americas.

A spike in the number of Brazilian babies born with brain defects and abnormally small heads has been linked to their mother’s contracting the virus during pregnancy.

The Zika virus, discovered in 1947 in Uganda, spread for decades through parts of Asia and Africa, largely unnoticed by the rest of the world.

“Now that we know Zika virus can be transmitted through sex, this increases our awareness campaign in educating the public about protecting themselves and others”, said Zachary Thompson, DCHHS director, to NBC.

The Zika virus, transmitted by the aggressive Aedes aegypti mosquito, has now spread to at least 24 countries.

The other three cases in Spain also concerned people who had traveled to affected regions in Latin America.

The virus, which one World Health Organization official said was spreading at an “explosive” rate, has been confirmed in several states since the outbreak of the illness.

Alaka Basu, a senior fellow for public health at the UN Foundation, told the BBC: “This significance is parallel with the HIV/Aids case”.

The Zika virus is another problem for Rio organizers, who have been forced to cut about $500 million to keep the $2 billion operating budget in balance with Brazil going through its deepest recession since the 1930s.

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi meanwhile announced it had begun research into a vaccine for Zika, for which there is now no specific treatment.

“Most important, we need to set up surveillance sites in low- and middle-income countries so that we can detect any change in the reporting patterns of microcephaly at an early stage”, Dr. Anthony Costello said in Geneva. All of the cases were believed to be contracted outside of the state.

The Zika virus is overshadowing the final preparations for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, even eclipsing concerns over deep budget cuts and severe water pollution.

Zika is spread by certain types of mosquitoes, and possibly by sexual activity.

France-based Sanofi said in a statement Tuesday that its experience with the dengue vaccine “can be rapidly leveraged to help understand the spread” of Zika and “potentially speed identification of a vaccine candidate for further clinical development”.