Queensland has confirmed its first case of Zika as the globe deals with the threat posed by the virus.
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According to the World Health Organization, Pan American Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control, the Zika virus is now circulating in the following countries and territories: Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Saint Martin, Suriname, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Samoa, Tonga and Cape Verde.
“We wish we knew more, we wish we could do more”.
But people should abstain from having unprotected sex with anyone who has been to an area where there’s an outbreak, after a patient in Texas was found to be infected after her partner returned from Venezuela with the disease.
The disease that has spread rapidly through the Americas and led to a global health scare over its possible link to severe birth defects, is primarily transmitted by mosquito.
But it doesn’t necessarily mean you can get sick from contact with an infected person’s saliva or urine, said CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Scientists are trying to establish whether infection with the Zika virus during pregnancy causes microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and an underdeveloped brain. Those with symptoms should be tested at the time of illness, CDC said.
The New Zealand team leave for a training camp in Florida on Sunday before they travel to Rio de Janeiro to assess the venue for the Olympics competition in August and then to Sao Paulo for the world sevens circuit tournament on February 20-21.
“They are not ideal, no test is flawless, but they are performing better than we had hoped, so we have more confidence than two weeks ago”, said Frieden.
The scientists said they used genetic testing to identify the virus in saliva and urine samples from the two patients, who had symptoms caused by Zika infection, and determined that the virus was active, meaning it had the potential to cause infection.
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Brazil has been the country hardest hit by the outbreak, with an estimated 1.5 million cases.
