Sexually-transmitted Zika case confirmed in Texas

No cases of the virus have been detected in India yet, but the health ministry on Tuesday issued guidelines on the disease, including an advisory that travel to affected countries be postponed or cancelled.

Although doctors have known since 2008 that Zika can be spread through sex, “this is probably a minor or rare form of transmission”, said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Most fears about Zika focused on the effects that women can pass on to their children if infected while pregnant.

While no locally transmitted Zika cases have been reported in the USA, cases have been reported in returning travelers, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The National Environment Agency has already stepped up its vector control efforts, in partnership with the community, agencies and stakeholders, to control the mosquito population in response to the ongoing dengue outbreak”. Pregnant women should avoid contact with semen from men exposed to the virus.

An HSE spokeswoman described these two as “the first cases of a Zika virus infection confirmed in Ireland” to the Daily Mail.

“It could be that we’re getting the strongest signal in Brazil”, he said. Zika does not cause symptoms in most people it infects and in about 20 percent causes a mild rash, fever, muscle aches and pinkeye.

Quoting a World Health Organization report, he said Zika is now present in 23 countries and Brazil, the hardest-hit country, has reported around 3,530 cases of the devastating birth defect, called microcephaly, in 2015 that are strongly suspected to be related to Zika. While strikingly little is known about Zika-scientists are furiously working to learn more about everything from transmission to treatment-we do know that the virus can spread through sperm, and that individuals who plan on having sex with people who may be at risk should definitely wear a condom.

(Dallas health officials have not revealed weather the infected traveler showed symptoms of the virus.) In the case of sexually transmitted viruses such as HPV and herpes, for example, the illnesses can be spread by people who are asymptomatic-but we just don’t know enough about Zika’s human-to-human transmission yet to understand how it spreads.

Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Jamaica and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico have all warned women not to get pregnant.

Take note, however, that despite the circumstantial evidence linking the two conditions, only six cases of microcephaly out of the thousands have been definitively linked to Zika infection via laboratory tests.

The rapid outbreak of the virus in North and South America has alarmed the World Health Organization (WHO), prompting it to declare a “public health emergency“.

Speaking via Skype from Geneva to British broadcaster Sky News, Christian Lindmeier also urged people to “keep everything on a rational level” because “not every mosquito you see flying around on the wall is an infected mosquito”.

Both patients are said to be “currently well and fully recovered” by the UK Daily Mail. The virus, which causes flu-like symptoms, has also been connected to the birth defect microcephaly.

“This highlights our ignorance of this virus and the need for an urgent, comprehensive and coordinated research response”, said Peter Horby, a professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health at Britain’s University of Oxford.

Meanwhile, the French government announced it was sending extra hospital equipment and medical staff to go to two French regions in the Caribbean that face an epidemic of Zika.

A few cases have been reported in Guadeloupe and Saint Martin, also part of the French Caribbean.