Zika Virus: Colombia Reports First 3 Death Cases Due to Infection

Guo also said that Zika-carrying mosquitoes can infect people they bite and pass on the virus to the next generation of mosquitoes.

Two more cases of the Zika virus have been found in two additional Florida counties. In the south-east of Brazil, 11 cities confirmed this week that they were cancelling carnival and using the funds saved to bolster the fight against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries the virus. Legalizing abortion for microcephaly cases would likely require the authorization of brutal and controversial late-term abortion procedures that involve dismemberment, saline, or lethal injections.

As the rates of infection have spread in recent months, national and global health care agencies are scrambling to answer basic questions about the virus, which is primarily spread by mosquitoes.

Instead of advocating for solutions to fight against the spread of the virus, some are seeking to play into fears and exploit the crisis by advancing the legalization of abortion in Latin American countries.

Health officials had previously reported isolated instances of the virus being passed via blood transfusions and sexual contact, including a us case reported this week.

There is no vaccine or treatment for Zika, which has caused outbreaks in at least 26 countries in the Americas.

Experts say that the sexual transmission discovery adds an exponential degree of difficulty to both detecting and preventing Zika outbreaks.

The discovery opens “new paradigms for understanding the transmission routes of the Zika virus”, she said.

Brazilian doctors have already linked Zika to an increase in babies born with abnormally small heads, a condition known as microcephaly, though research teams are still trying to prove this connection.

“How can they ask these women not to become pregnant, but not offer… the possibility to stop their pregnancies?” spokesperson Cecile Pouilly told reporters.

The victims in Colombia died of complications after being infected with Zika and then developing a rare neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome. This past Monday, the WHO declared the Zika outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

Two weeks ago, the CDC advised any pregnant woman with symptoms of Zika (which can be mild and include fever, rash, headache, red eye) to be tested for the virus.

Scientists pointed out there was no proof the virus could be transmitted through the fluids, but said people should take precautions, especially expectant mothers.

In Puerto Rico, a pregnant woman in her first trimester was diagnosed with the disease, health officials said. So far, the only recent case that has been transmitted within the U.S.is believed to have occurred in Texas through sex.

This week, it was announced a pregnant woman in Spain who had travelled to Colombia has the virus – in what is thought to be the first such case in Europe.