This expanded guidance is based on a recently reported case of female-to-male sexual transmission in NY and on limited human and nonhuman primate data indicating that Zika virus RNA can be detected in vaginal secretions.
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Between three and 37 people would likely take the virus to their home country, since the average time the virus remains in the body is about 10 days (although it persists longer in some cases).
An anti Zika virus kit, including a bug net, mosquito repellent, condoms, literature and anti mosquito dunks, is pictured in this April 29, 2016 – photo illustration.
Tens of thousands of babies may be born with Zika-related disorders in the course of the outbreak that is sweeping Latin America and the Caribbean, researchers said on Monday.
Just two months ago Swiss health officials said there were 16 confirmed cases of Zika in Switzerland – but they warned the actual number could be far higher. Sex includes vaginal, anal, and oral sex.
Mathematical projections suggest about 93.4 million people may catch the virus – including some 1.65 million pregnant women – before the epidemic fizzles out, a team reported on Monday in the journal Nature Microbiology.
CDC also advises that pregnant women, with possible Zika exposure but no symptoms, receive testing as well.
For pregnant women who visit their healthcare provider after the 14 day testing window, a test that indicates the presence of a virus in the family of viruses that includes Zika should be performed first and those who test positive should then receive a Zika-specific blood testing.
Fernando Ruíz, the country’s vice minister of health, told reporters that the country was entering a “post-epidemic phase”, less than a year after the virus was first identified in the country.
If results come out that the virus is attributed to Zika, the Florida woman could be the first person afflicted with mosquito bites without traveling to a foreign country, like Brazil and she could be the first case in the United States.
Though experts say some 80 percent of those with the virus do not show symptoms, Ruiz said that asymptomatic infections should be falling at the same rate as symptomatic ones. Until recently, scientists thought men spread the virus to their sexual partners.
CDC tests have confirmed 51 Zika cases in Pennsylvania since early this year, all of them linked to travel in outbreak-affected areas overseas.
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The virus is primarily transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito, but it can also be spread through sexual contact.
