One cases from this year involved a women who is pregnant.
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Health officials have warned against traveling to the two dozen or so countries affected by the virus. The virus has been linked to microcephaly- a condition that causes babies to be born with unusually small heads and, in vast majority of cases, damaged brains.
But there are things that people can do to lower their risk of contracting the virus, including rigorously protecting against mosquito bites, which are the usual mode of Zika transmission, and following the new guidelines to prevent sexual transmission, Frieden said.
Stay with us for more on this developing story.
The best repellent to protect against Aedes mosquitoes that carry the rapidly spreading virus is Sawyer Fisherman’s Formula, which is made with 20 percent Picaridin, according to the study.
The scientists said they used genetic testing to identify the virus in saliva and urine samples from the two patients, who had symptoms caused by Zika infection, and determined that the virus was active, meaning it had the potential to cause infection. The virus is found in saliva and semen and, in rare cases, can be transmitted sexually. In that case, officials said a man returned from Venezuela, where there are existing cases of the virus, and infected a partner through sex.
The CDC recommends that pregnant women and men with a pregnant partner who have traveled to an area with Zika activity should “consistently and correctly use condoms during sex… or abstain from sexual activity for the duration of the pregnancy”.
So far, there have been no reports of sexual transmission of Zika virus from infected women to their sex partners, the CDC added.
On Friday the agency recommended that any pregnant woman who has traveled to one of the affected countries be tested for the presence of the virus between two to 12 weeks of her return home.
“We wish we knew more”.
“I think we need to be careful that don’t we jump to any conclusions about transmissibility”, Anthony Fauci, who leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during an interview on NPR’s Morning Edition.
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In a statement (in Spanish), the health ministry said the pregnant woman was diagnosed as having Zika in the north-eastern Catalonia region. If the man lives in or has traveled to an active Zika area the couple may consider using condoms or abstaining from sex.
