Several of the cases involved pregnant women, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned on Tuesday.
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The other 12 possible cases – all women – have not been confirmed.
The women are given an extensive questionnaire touching on everything from whether they used mosquito repellent during pregnancy to where they got their drinking water to how much the family makes.
U.S. health officials are investigating whether 14 new Zika virus infections may been transmitted through sex, raising questions about the role of sex in spreading a disease that has been linked to birth defects in Brazil.
There have, however, been two reported cases where Zika was sexually transmitted, including a recent one in the U.S. state of Texas, and at least two other reports where the Zika virus was found in semen.
The health sector will continue to strengthen the supervision at ports of entry of passengers from countries and territories with the Zika virus, the General Department of Preventive Medicine (GDPM) under the Ministry of Health announced yesterday. It’s even more unclear if saliva is able to transmit the virus, though there have been reports of Zika virus in saliva samples.
Top officials from the WHO, including Director-General Margaret Chan, MD, MPH, and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa Etienne, MD, were scheduled to meet with Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, today as part of an effort to assess the country’s Zika virus situation and response to the outbreak.
In four out of five cases, people who are bitten by an infected mosquito show no symptoms.
The CDC recommends men who recently traveled to Zika-infected areas should use condoms or abstain from sex if their partner is pregnant or if the couple is concerned about transmitting the virus for any reason. “If they become sick, they should tell their healthcare professional where they have traveled and when”, the CDC said.
The Declaration of Public Health Emergency has been expanded to include Seminole County.
The WHO still cautions that more investigation is needed to better understand the relationship between microcephaly in babies and the Zika virus outbreak.
The Zika virus primarily is spread to humans through mosquitoes but in rare cases has been transmitted through sexual contact and blood transfusions. CDC added two more destinations to its caution list Tuesday: Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, and the Marshall Islands in the Pacific.
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There is no vaccine to prevent Zika virus and no medicine to treat it.
