The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights says laws and policies that restrict access to birth control services must be repealed amid the explosive outbreak of the Zika virus in the Americas, which has been linked to an increase in the number of babies born with abnormally small heads.
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With the Zika virus having arrived in the United States, federal health officials on Friday outlined recommendations to prevent infected people from spreading the virus through sexual contact.
Suspected cases of the Zika virus include people who are travelling from Zika-hit regions, those who have at least two out of the above-mentioned clinical symptoms and those who have Guillain Barre syndrome and microcephaly, among others.
Brazilian scientists announced their discovery on Friday, as USA health officials advised more stringent measures for monitoring pregnant women for Zika and for preventing sexual transmission of the virus. We are joined by Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Amy Vittor, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Florida’s Division of Infectious Disease.
The Texas case, the first known instance of a person becoming infected while in the United States, immediately raised a whole new set of concerns about the rapid spread of the pathogen. You can try to do this by using insect repellant, wearing long-sleeved shirts and trousers, and emptying standing water – pretty much the same precautions you’re given to protect yourself from West Nile or any other mosquito-transmitted virus.
The birth of thirteen healthy babies to women infected with the Zika virus is a welcome sign that microcephaly is not the guaranteed outcome of the malady, which may help diminish the panic provoked by those who have anything but the health of mothers and their babies at heart.
Now Brazilian officials are saying that pregnant women should think twice before giving a kiss – especially to strangers.
The CDC urged couples in which a partner is not pregnant to “consider using condoms consistently and correctly during sex or abstaining from sexual activity”. Zika testing in men is recommended to establish diagnosis of infection in groups including pregnant women.
There is no treatment or vaccine available for Zika infection.
US health authorities recommended that men who have visited areas with the Zika virus use condoms if they have sex with pregnant women.
Zika virus is a flavivirus related to yellow fever, dengue, West Nile and Japanese encephalitis viruses.
One case of the Zika virus has been confirmed in Georgia, a traveler who had been in Colombia.
In the USA, there have been about 50 cases of travelers diagnosed with the virus, including six pregnant women.
Two government sources said the decision would be made at a meeting next Wednesday between the health, science and technology ministries as well as President Dilma Rousseff’s chief of staff. Pregnant women, on the other hand, need to take note given what we know about the disease and its potential links to microcephaly and Guillain-Barré syndrome.
But the U.S. CDC stressed that although sexual transmission is possible, mosquito bites remain the primary way that the Zika virus is transmitted.
Puerto Rico has become the latest country to declare a public health emergency.
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The disease starts with a mosquito bite and normally causes little more than a fever and rash. “The bottom line is Zika is primarily a mosquito-borne disease”.
