The unidentified Texas victim had sex with someone who had recently traveled in Venezuela, state officials said.
Advertisement
“They are other patients that are pregnant right now planning on travel to Mexico or the Caribbean and some are even canceling their plans to go”, said Berry.
Meanwhile, Defense Department (DoD) officials yesterday announced that the DoD will offer to relocate pregnant family members of active-duty or civilian military personnel assigned to areas affected by Zika virus transmission, the Military Times reported. The agency plans to issue further guidelines soon.
Although Zika infections are usually mild and deaths are rare, health authorities are concerned because of a link between the disease and a sharp increase in birth defects in Brazil.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a full list of South and Central American countries where the virus has spread rapidly. The CDC is now urging sexual partners to wear condoms to prevent sexually transmitted infections. With news that it can be transmitted sexually, new precautions will need to be taken to stop the spread.
A statement issued by the CDC said the best way to avoid Zika virus infection was “to prevent mosquito bites AND to avoid exposure to semen from someone who has been exposed to Zika”.
“We will initiate early spraying treatment against mosquitoes throughout the country in March”.
In another development, two cases of the Zika virus have been confirmed in Australia. Many people who are infected do not show any symptoms, and those who do can be treated easily.
How do you treat Zika infection?
Health officials in Dallas reported the first case of known sexual transmission of Zika in the current outbreak Tuesday. So the health department mobilized a door-to-door education campaign, leaving door hangers and refrigerator magnets reminding residents to check their yards regularly for containers with standing water.
The patient was infected with the virus after having sex with a traveller who had just returned from a country battling the mosquito-borne virus. The virus is linked to birth defects, such as brain damage and an unusually small head, when a pregnant women contracts the virus. But that list is continuously being updated and added to by the CDC. Several days after that, the man became symptomatic, experiencing swollen ankles, a rash on his torso and extreme fatigue and headache, but no fever, according to a description published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The HSE said that both individuals have a history of travel to Zika-affected countries. “And we know a lot about flaviviruses, but not that much about Zika itself”.
County authorities said there were no reports of the virus being transmitted by mosquitoes in the Texas county.
Advertisement
Checking body temperatures has remained since the spread of diseases such as Ebola and Mers-CoV which could enter the country through the global borders, he said. They did not disclose the sexes of the couple and they did not say if a man’s semen had been tested for the virus.
