This week, the Florida Department of Health reported six new travel-associated cases of Zika to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), bringing the total of travel-related cases in the state to nine.
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Zika is not typically lethal in adults but is linked to birth defects, making the virus particularly unsafe for pregnant women.
The virus is suspected to be linked to increased chances of the fetus developing microcephaly during pregnancy, a rare condition defined by the baby having an abnormally small head due to irregular brain development either within the womb or during infancy.
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”. But it wasn’t the first to raise the possibility of sexual transmission of the virus. Both have recovered from the infection. But researchers such as Fish suggest that environmental factors have been neglected and, with no vaccine available for Zika, are also a key part of the solution.
Based on that, the CDC says it will soon provide guidance on sexual transmission, with a “focus on the male sexual partners of women who are or who may be pregnant”. The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week.
Instead, they got the organizers’ medical director, Dr. Joao Grangeiro, and government health officials offering assurances that the Games will be safe from Zika and that only pregnant women are at risk from the mosquito-borne virus with its epicenter in Brazil.
The virus is spread primarily by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, whose habitat is concentrated in the tropics – giving temperate countries an apparent reprieve.
The CDC already recommends that USA doctors test newborns who show signs of the Zika virus, especially in states such as Florida, where mosquitoes are a daily nuisance.
The World Health Organisation has declared the sharp rise in serious birth defects an worldwide emergency and launched a global Zika response unit.
Dallas County officials said a patient there was infected following sexual contact with someone who had returned to the United States after contracting it in Venezuela.
“After a review of the evidence, the committee advised that the clusters of microcephaly and other neurological complications constitute an extraordinary event and public health threat to other parts of the world”, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said.
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.
That combination is a recipe for concern and near panic in Latin America, where the Zika virus is widespread.
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Since the first case was discovered in Brazil last May, Zika has been found in 27 countries and territories in the Americas.
