“These are the first cases of Zika virus infection confirmed in Ireland”, a HSE spokeswoman said.
Advertisement
The confirmation of the first Zika case in Chile in the current outbreak came a day after the WHO declared an global health emergency for Zika, which has now infected people in at least 24 countries in the Americas.
A 2011 study looked at two cases of the virus in US scientists who lived in Senegal while they were performing a mosquito-sampling project. The patient had sexual contact with an individual who was ill and had recently returned from Venezuela, where the virus was present.
All nine cases have been contracted by people who’ve traveled to Latin America and the Caribbean and brought the disease back to Florida. The Pan American Health Organization concurred that more evidence is necessary before it can be said without doubt that sexual contact is now a new means for Zika transmission. He also added that next to abstinence, condoms are the best prevention method against any sexually-transmitted infections and he encouraged people to use them, with no exception.
“There is no vaccine to prevent Zika or medicines to stop the disease”.
Images of babies afflicted with microcephaly have been floating through the media as world health officials raise the alarm about the Zika Virus, which can cause shrunken heads and brain defects when pregnant mothers are infected.
The mosquito that carries the virus, Aedes aegypti, is common in South Florida. Usually these symptoms are mild and only last several days.
There are now no reports of the virus being locally transmitted by mosquitoes in Dallas County.
“This needs to be further investigated to understand the conditions and how often or likely sexual transmission is…This is the only the second mooted case of sexual transmission”, World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters.
Physicians are especially concerned about pregnant women contracting the virus.
Advertisement
In Texas, there are seven confirmed Zika cases linked to travel, according to the Department of State Health Services.
