Men with a pregnant partner who live in or have traveled to an area of active Zika transmission and their partner should consistently and correctly use condoms during sex or abstain for the duration of the pregnancy, the CDC said. With so many unknowns about Zika, researchers are keen to sequence the virus to see if it has evolved into a form capable of causing microcephaly, or an abnormally small head in infants. It’s also not known if a woman who is infected with Zika can spread the disease to a man through sex, the agency said.
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“One of the patients diagnosed in (the northeastern region of) Catalonia is a pregnant woman, who showed symptoms after having travelled to Colombia”, the ministry announced, adding that she was one of seven cases in Spain.
Pour spoke to the media Friday and said women with partners who have traveled overseas should talk to their partners and health care providers.
In 2014, chikungunya (chih-kihn-GUHN’-yuh), a virus spread by the same species of mosquito as Zika, infected a million people in the Caribbean.
In a report released Friday, the agency said current information about possible sexual transmission is based on reports of three cases.
But it doesn’t necessarily mean you can get sick from contact with an infected person’s saliva or urine, said CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of Zika virus.
A mosquito-borne virus that’s been linked to birth defects is raising fears among some travelers to South America. All of those patients are thought to have contracted the virus outside the country.
The virus, which has been linked to birth defects in the Americas, is primarily spread through mosquito bites, but investigators had been exploring the possibility it could be sexually transmitted. DHHS confirmed Thursday that the two women are the first reported cases in the state.
Virginia’s U.S. Senators, Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, are calling for additional funding to prevent transmission of the virus in the Unites States, and to counter the spread of the disease in Puerto Rico, where it is already present.
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After the story’s publication, the World Health Organization sent out a flurry of messages acknowledging that existing data-sharing mechanisms were deficient.
