“Everything we look at with this virus seems to be a bit scarier than we initially thought”. But the disease has other symptoms and transmission methods worth knowing about to avoid a global pandemic. One of those cases involved a Dallas man who was infected with the virus while traveling in Venezuela.
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In January this year, the man had anal sex with his partner without a condom a day before, and a day after he began exhibiting the symptoms of Zika – a fever and purple rash.
Microcephaly is a condition in which babies have abnormally small heads and brains leading to sometimes-severe developmental problems.
Although Zika can be spread sexually, mosquitoes still represent the biggest risk, Peter Hotez of the Baylor College of Medicine told BuzzFeed News.
The experts are doing their best to find what the Zika virus could also be doing aside from causing microcephaly in babies. Before now, researchers have only been able to confirm a link between microcephaly and Zika, but not definitively say there’s a causal relationship. The report describes the case of a man in Dallas who had become infected after returning from an area where Zika is circulating locally and then transmitted the virus to his male partner, suggesting a new route of infection for the mosquito-borne pathogen.
The latest conclusions came after all necessary scientific criteria had been met to make the official call, the CDC said. More than 600 individuals in the United States are affected by the Zika virus including 69 pregnant women. The incubation period for Zika virus disease is unknown, but scientists believe it is likely a few days to a week. “Pregnant women are where we have the most concern; those are the ones we need to test, if there’s a travel history”.
Zika virus has been spreading in Brazil since a year ago and the officials have noted a shocking increase in the number of microcephaly cases.
That person had traveled to a country where the virus has been reported.
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“This local case is not a threat to the public health of Summit County residents”, said Dr. Marguerite Erme, medical director at SCPH. The virus has already spread to more than 40 countries and territories, mostly in the Americas. The ministry said 16 cases have been ruled out as associated with Zika, but 15 others are still under review.
