In its statement, the UNFPA said women and girls should be able to make decisions about family planning and to protect their babies and themselves if they decide to become pregnant.
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The CDC also updated its interim guidance for health care providers in the USA who are caring for pregnant women and women of reproductive age with possible Zika virus exposure. In most people, it causes mild or no symptoms.
The Fiocruz team studied samples from two patients who showed symptoms of Zika and tested positive for the illness.
The Zika virus adds to other problems with South America’s first Olympics, including severe water pollution in Rio’s sailing and rowing venues, and deep cuts of nearly 30% to keep the operating budget in balance. That stops them from carrying pathogens that can lead to diseases such as yellow fever and chikungunya, as well as the Zika virus.
Women’s reproductive rights are a touchy subject in largely Catholic Latin America, where an outbreak of the virus is blamed for causing brain damage in babies and a potentially paralyzing nerve disorder.
“The test might turn out to be positive because I was infected with Zika, with dengue or even both”, explained Fauci.
Researcher and molecular engineering lecturer at the University of the Sunshine Coast Joanne MacDonald said while Zika had been the subject of research for years, the current link to microcephaly was a “quite scary”. There are fears that the presence of the Zika virus, which has been linked to a rare birth defect in pregnant women, will scare off athletes and foreign tourists.
Despite the connection to sexual transmission, Frieden emphasized that mosquitoes are still the primary route for catching Zika virus and warned about the aggressiveness of the primary carrier in the tropics: the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
“There have been no locally-acquired cases of Zika virus in Florida”, the release said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stressed that the Zika (ZEE’-kuh) virus is still mainly spread by mosquitoes. Another 21 cases have been reported in the US territories of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
“We don’t now have a lot of Zika on the ground as far as we know but people travel; people get in planes”, he said.
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Earlier this week, United States health officials confirmed the first case of sexually-transmitted Zika, involving a person who had traveled to Venezuela and infected a sexual partner in Texas upon return. Breitbart News host Stephen K. Bannon noted that Brazil has not canceled the Carnaval celebration, which will also attract a sizable number of worldwide travelers.
