Spain Reports First Known European Case Of Zika-Infected Pregnant Woman

Zika is a virus that is carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito and transmitted through its bite.

The union’s members include workers who go door-to-door in Rio de Janeiro trying to eradicate the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits Zika.

“The safety of the blood supply is paramount and it is important we implement any precautionary blood safety measures agreed here as a result of an increasing prevalence of infectious diseases found around the globe”, a spokeswoman said.

Without viruses from Brazil – the epicenter of the ongoing Zika crisis – laboratories in the United States and Europe are being forced to work with samples from previous outbreaks, and is frustrating efforts to develop diagnostic tests, drugs and vaccines.

“Up to now, the diagnosed cases of Zika virus in Spain… don’t risk spreading the virus in our country as they are imported cases”, it said.

Individuals can protect themselves from mosquito bites by using insect repellents, and wearing long sleeves and long trousers – especially during daylight, when the mosquitoes tend to be most active, health officials say.

Discerning something like sexual transmission would have to occur in a place where an outbreak was not raging, he said. Although it has yet to be scientifically proved, recent reports suggest that the Zika virus can increase a woman’s chances of having a baby with microcephaly. Those cases involved a person who traveled to Venezuela and had sexual contact with another person upon returning to Dallas, officials said.

The Wadsworth Center in Albany is already testing symptomatic New Yorkers who have recently traveled to affected areas but due to concerns regarding birth defects associated with Zika virus, DOH will expand testing to all symptomatic and asymptomatic pregnant women with recent travel history. “How long it would remain in the semen is something that needs to be studied and we’re working on that now”, said CDC Director Tom Frieden as mentioned in a report by CNN. It wasn’t believed to cause any serious effects until a year ago; about 80 percent of infected people never experience symptoms.

With dozens of cases emerging in Europeans and North Americans returning from Zika-affected areas, WHO stressed the potential link between Zika and microcephaly – which causes children to be born with abnormally small heads – and urged health authorities to take precautions.

Brazil’s first case was recorded in the middle of a year ago, and the disease quickly spread across country and to more than 20 nations in the region, the Caribbean and beyond, leading the World Health Organization this week to declare an global emergency.

There had been two previous suspected cases of sexual transmission in 2008 and 2015.

“We need to know more about how likely this is to happen”.

Only around 1 in 4 people infected by the virus will present any symptoms at all, and most people will be completely unaware that they had it. Most cases will only last for around 2-7 days.

Brazil’s Health Ministry said the first recipient died of his wounds and not from the Zika infection.

Pregnant women in NY who have recently traveled to countries impacted by the Zika virus can now get free tests for the infection.

The Zika (ZEE’-ka) virus was first discovered in monkey in Uganda in 1947 – its name comes from the Zika forest where it was first discovered.