Texas reports sexually transmitted case

USA health officials say a person in Texas became infected with Zika through sex, in the first case of the illness being transmitted within the United States.

Derabad: A Hyderabad-based vaccines and bio-therapeutic manufacturer, Bharat Biotech, today claimed to have pulled-off a major breakthrough in the development of the world’s first vaccine to fight the dreaded mosquito-borne Zika virus which has been declared as public health emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO). “And if they do take a travel history and there’s some evidence that they’d been in South America for instance then they might think of doing a test. I would suspect in many instances the person would just recover before even seeing a doctor”.

Dallas County Health and Human Services released a statement verifying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s report.

But the World Health Organization (WHO) said it “strongly suspected” the Zika virus of being responsible for a rapid rise in cases of microcephaly, a condition in which a baby is born with an abnormally small head and brain.

The virus is sweeping through South and Central America, and now, cases are popping up in the United States. However the virus is known to spread rapidly and Zika is present on a nearby island, Martinique. The hotter it gets, the better the mosquito that carries Zika virus is at transmitting its buffet of unsafe illnesses.

A third study found the virus in the breast milk of infected mothers, and concluded that two babies who tested positive for Zika virus within days of birth possibly acquired it from their mothers’ bodily fluids during pregnancy or birth.

This is on top of the more than 20 cases reported since January 2014, all of which were contracted overseas. Another man had traces of Zika in his sperm, however the virus had vanished from his blood. Does it only spread if the first person is suffering symptoms? Here’s what you need to know about the virus.

Twelve states are reporting people who caught the virus while traveling, and that number could grow.

“The symptoms of Zika are so similar to many other diseases that to be able to distinguish it, such a mild disease, from anything else would be very hard”.

The WHO has not recommended travel or trade bans with affected countries, but says that it is drawing up advice to pregnant women. One such case was confirmed by the CDC in Hawaii.

“The war against the breeding sites is complex because they can be found everywhere so it needs the engagement of everybody”, she said, urging people to consider water tanks, flower vases, swimming pools, gutters, bottles, tyres or any container thrown away as rubbish.

“Fumigation has high visibility – high political visibility – but we are not sure that it really is extremely effective in fighting the Aedes aegypti mosquito”, Etienne said.

Health experts warn that Zika poses a massive threat to Asia.

Pfizer Inc, Johnson and Johnson and Merck & Co Inc said they were evaluating their technologies or existing vaccines for their potential to combat Zika.