It is unknown if the patient is male or female, though it has been confirmed the patient is not pregnant.
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This marks the fifth confirmed case of the virus in Canada – with two people in British Columbia, one in Alberta and another case in Quebec, according to Canada’s chief public health officer.
The patient, a woman who is not pregnant and whose identity and condition are not being released for privacy reasons, had recently returned from a trip to Colombia.
An Iowa resident has tested positive for the Zika virus, the state Department of Public Health announced this morning.
“From the beginning of the outbreak in Central and South America, we have taken steps to ensure our health system and our partners are prepared should a returning traveller be suspected of having the virus”, the statement reads.
Anyone who has traveled to countries affected by the virus should speak with their health-care provider, who can advise them on the need for testing.
The province says the risk to Ontarians remains “very low” as mosquitos known to transmit the virus are not established in Canada and not suited to this country’s climate. “All we’re doing is to make sure that indeed we check whether it was the Zika virus, because that’s what the NICD must conserve with the laboratory that has done the test”.
The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global public health emergency on February 1, noting its association with two neurological disorders – microcephaly in babies and Guillain-Barre syndrome that can cause paralysis.
Zika, however, is just the latest cloud hanging over Brazil ahead of South America’s first Olympics.
There hasn’t been a single reported case of locally acquired Zika virus in Canada.
The CDC experts stressed, however, that Zika infection in newborns who contract the virus during delivery is typically mild or without symptoms.
As many as 4,400 babies in Brazil have been born with microcephaly, in which babies have abnormally small heads and brains, to women who may have been bitten by mosquitoes carrying the virus.
In May 2015, a case was diagnosed in Brazil and, since then, it has spread rapidly.
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The scientific community is trying to unravel if and how the virus transmits through blood transfusions, sexual intercourse and even from mother to baby.
