A Summit County resident has tested positive for the Zika virus after traveling to a Zika-infected country, the Summit County Public Health department said Thursday. The government agency acknowledged that a February report of a case of sexual transmission in Dallas, Texas involved two gay men.
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This case of Zika being spread through sex was first reported earlier this year, but was not at the time revealed to be male-male transmission.
Having confirmed what the mounting evidence had suggested, officials reiterated the need for pregnant women and their partners to take steps to avoid Zika infection.
Zika is a rapidly spreading, mosquito-borne virus that is linked to severe birth defects, including microcephaly, or small heads, in infants born to women with Zika. The work of the Inserm and confirm that this virus can be transmitted through sex. Men who travel to such an area should use condoms for 6 months. Some travelers to areas with Zika will become infected while traveling but will not become sick until they return home and they might not have any symptoms. But on Wednesday, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) weighed in with its own definitive conclusion.
A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) map shows the Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus mosquitoes that can carry the Zika virus can be found in 30 states, including OH, after originally identifying only Southern states as those most likely to face outbreaks.
“It is now clear that the virus causes microcephaly”, said Tom Frieden, director of the CDC.
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The March of Dimes is urging congress to provide immediate new funding to fight the spread of the Zika virus. “Anal sex is practiced not only by men who have sex with men, but also by heterosexual couples, and so it’s important to consider not the person’s sexual preference but the activity in which they’re engaging”, Brooks told NPR. Almost all of Florida’s cases were acquired by people traveling outside the country, except for one case of sexual transmission in Polk County.
