More than human males, the greater threat of transmission comes from mosquitoes, the Aedes type in particular.
Advertisement
“At the moment, we believe the association is guilty until proven innocent”, he said, referring to the connection drawn in Brazil between the virus and babies with small heads. “Our department of health will continue to be in constant communication with all county health offices, hospitals and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention”.
“It’s very hard to parse this out in the middle of an epidemic”, said Khan, now dean of the University of Nebraska’s college of public health.
That’s what happened in Dallas.
The CDC said it will provide more guidance as more information on sexual transmission is learned, but in the meantime, “Sexual partners can protect each other by using condoms to prevent spreading sexually transmitted infections”.
But this week came the news in Dallas that a patient had caught the virus after having sex with someone who had returned from Venezuela, where Zika is circulating.
Officials released few details about the case, except to say both patients have recovered.
Thus far, there is no vaccine for the virus. Sadly, many of those conditions are present in the poorest regions of the Gulf Coast in the United States – specifically in parts of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. “What we know is the vast majority of spread is going to be from mosquitoes”, Frieden said.
And those that do usually develop mild symptoms – fever, rash, joint pain, and red eyes – which usually last no more than a week.
But since last October, Brazil has reported 404 confirmed cases of microcephaly-up from 147 in 2014-plus 3,670 suspected cases.
Florida Governor Rick Scott declared a public health emergency in four counties with travel-related cases of the Zika virus, and ordered state officials to increase mosquito control efforts in some of the southeastern USA state’s most heavily populated locales including Miami and Tampa.
“Mosquito transmission is the highway, whereas sexual transmission is the byway”.
World Health Organization said Monday that French Polynesia had also seen a spike in microcephaly cases during a Zika outbreak there two years ago.
Mirror Online reports tourists returning from nations affected by Zika – which causes microcephaly, or shrunken skulls, in babies – have been told they can not donate blood for a month.
“Pregnant women planning to travel to areas where Zika is circulating should consult a healthcare provider before traveling and upon return”, the ministry said.
For the first time since Zika took off with a vengeance in Central and South America early this year, US officials have started reporting the first Zika cases inside USA borders. Scientists say the hotter it gets, the better the mosquito that carries Zika virus is at transmitting a variety of unsafe illnesses.
As a result, the CDC has issued travel warnings for pregnant women in the countries affected by the virus. The second is the conditions in communities; places that are crowded and don’t have air conditioning enable viruses such as Zika to spread.
Even if someone were unfortunate and had an affected pregnancy, this is not something that stays in the system long enough to affect another pregnancy months later.
Advertisement
How long is someone infectious?
